Naruto: the White Fox Chronicles
by KaiserKou
Summary: When Wave and Wind conspire to join in the last scion of the Namikaze, a Kekkei Genkai is born. Armed with the power of ice and frost Naruto must face the trials ahead. A story about a child trapped by prophecy, a man haunted by the ghosts of the past, and a girl chasing a dream.
1. An Inkling of Power

Oh! My first FanFic! I'm so exited! Squeeee!

*SLAP*

Focus, damn it! Drama, angst, romance, humour, triumph – tell it! _Iku ze, Mina_!

 **Disclaimer** : I do not own Naruto and its affiliated products, but under my native country's copyright law I have full right to any invention of my own added onto the Naruto setting, including story elements, storylines and original characters. Not that I'd pursue this copyright in case of infringement... It's fanfiction, you know? Not the end of the world, just sayin'.

* * *

Chapter 1: An Inkling of Power

* * *

"Kakashi" Tsunade spoke as she leant over her desk, peering thoughtfully at him through narrowed eyes. "Do you realise the implications of this?"

"Yeah" he absently rubbed the top of his head while thinking it over "I think I kinda do". It was the evening after he had commenced Uzumaki Naruto's elemental release training, and he stood before the Hokage in her office as the sunset coloured the sky a burning red on the far horizon outside the panoramic window behind her. The results yielded by that day's training had been... astounding, to say the very least, and unexpected.

Then again, he had no idea of what to expect of the number one most surprising Shinobi in Konoha by now. But as his teacher, and the sole remaining desciple of the boy's father, he felt like he had no longer any right to underestimate Naruto.

"You realise what this means for Konoha?" Tsunade pressed, her often so fair, pale and youthfully smooth brow furrowed as she pondered what was to come of this new development. "We haven't had a... not since the Uchiha were vanquished, and their abilities with their Kekkei Genkai were tied to the Sharingan. In that way they were finite, aprenhensible, and we knew their strength and weaknesses. But a true Kekkei Genkai-"

"Provided we outsmart or defeat Akatsuki, Hokage-sama" Kakashi spoke softly, slowly, but his voice was twisted into an uncharacteristic severity "this will make us the most powerful of the hidden villages. Not one but two – two! - Ninjutsu-type Kekkei Genkai under our control. Iwa and Kumo won't stand for this. Along with the clan Hiden Jutsu and the Byakugan this would make us too powerful. There will be a war".

Both of them knew what that meant. An imbalance of power between the Shinobi villages, even the slightest leaning of the scales one way or the other, could have disastrous effects. If one hidden village was recognized as stronger than the others then that village would get more custom and requests from throughout the nations, and so would grow wealthy and more powerful. A wealthy village could drive research projects, cloning and breeding programs, increase their fighting force and establish Jutsu initiatives and scholarships, training it's own Shinobi to become even stronger, the result of which would mean more capital gained from the outside world as that village was requested and favoured above all others.

A self-perpetuation cycle of profit and ascension, each propelling the other. A cycle that would be very hard to stop.

If it was known in the other nations that one of the strongest Ninjutsu-type Shinobi ever born in Konoha was in possession of a Ninjutsu-type Kekkei Genkai then the current careful balance of nominal peace would be thrown out of check. The other villages, threatened by the success of Konoha, would band together, strike more desperately, intending to rob Konoha of that advantage if only to preserve their own way of life.

Such aggression had been the preludes to the former three Shinobi World Wars, and rising tension always brought about conflict. It was the way of the world they lived in.

"How did this happen?" Tsunade pressed yet again, leaning back into her seat and throwing up her feet onto the surface of her desk. At any other time Kakashi would have desperately wanted to leer at her massive mammaries, her brobdinagian bosom, her celestial cleavage with pale and perfect flesh and skin that jiggled slightly as she moved, but now he had serious matters on him mind, not perverted thoughts.

"I think his... tenant" the Senju princess frowned at the mention of that horrid beast "has affected his body on a molecular level. The way the seal trapping _it_ works... it's chakra has seeped into his body since birth. It's poisonous, acidic, but his body has built up a tolerance to it and remade it into his own chakra. It has changed him on a physical level too – his senses are enhanced, his cheeks are whiskered, and his rapid regeneration".

"Are you saying that the... that _thing_ " she almost snarled "as gone so far as affect the nature of his chakra?"

"In a sense, Hokage-sama. If you don't mind me speculating..." she waved him on. "I think he, like Sensei, had an affinity for Fuuton and Wind-based Ninjutsu. And just like Sensei and his mother he was particularly strong in Suiton too – after all, it was his mother's affinity. But because of the chakra of the... the beast leaking, his own chakra has been super-charged, expanded. Thus his second nature affinity, Suiton, has become just as strong as his primary. And so Wind and Water has gone together in him to create" he paused and bit his lower lip beneath the mask "Ice".

"Fuuton, Suiton" Tsunade held up one hand and then the other before pressing her palms against each other in a unifying gesture. "Hyooton, Ice Release. His father's name is sort of... apropos for this, ne? Namikaze; Wave and Wind".

"I don't know anything about that" Kakashi said simply, a shrug accompanying his words. "I've never looked into Naruto's family tree, on account of it being classified as a state secret, and Sensei... Minato-sensei never discussed his family. I got the impression it was a... touchy subject".

" _So ka"_ Tsuande furrowed her brow further and put a thumb to her chin. "Yamato is sterile" she said suddenly, and Kakashi flinched.

"S-so Tenzo-kohai can't have kids?" he asked. "Many people can't. What of it?"

"In itself it's not unusual. Between six and three percent of the world's population are infertile by his age anyway" she said in a matter-of-fact tone like she was lecturing to aspiring medic-nin. "But Yamato is the result of an experiment. His chakra is a damn near clone of my grandfather's, though much, much weaker. Still his abilities are some of, if not the most, useful and requested in Konoha. His abilities have opened doors to us we never would have taken otherwise. And his Kekkei Genkai, though powerful in its own, is at a fraction of its true potential. He can't carry it on, so the sole remaining person in the world with Shodaime's Mokuton potential in their blood" she pointed a finger to herself "would be me".

"So if you had children, Hokage-sama-" he was interrupted by a loud snort from the Sannin. As he looked to her a slight smile spread across her cheeks. "What is it?"

"Statistics don't lie, Kakashi-kun" she said in a strangely soft and somehow... wistful tone. "Three to six percent of all women between the ages of fifteen to forty-four are infertile. All women, and it's a number's game. Eventually" she was smiling softly, as if she had gotten used to the idea, but Kakashi knew she was bleeding inside. "Eventually the numbers will come up, and there's nothing anyone can do about it".

"I'm sorry" he said quietly, eyes turned towards the floor in shame.

"Don't be" she admonished with a wave. "I found out when I was twelve and never got my period. I'm almost sixty now, and I've gotten pretty used to the idea". She shook her head and waved them on, bringing them back onto topic. "If the changes have been made to Naruto on a physical level, perhaps it's so thorough as to be cellular. Thus it's likely to be present in his chromosomes, and thus likely to be inherited onto his children. Yamato, as a clone, has only a decade or two left in him at the most. The natural degradation of cloned genetic material and all that" she waved when Kakashi frowned, not understanding. "When that happens Naruto, as a user of the Hyooton, will be the only Shinobi in Konoha with a Ninjutsu-type Kekkei Genkai. We mustn't make Shodaime's mistake and allow it to peter out of existence. He must have heirs to his Kekkei Genkai".

"What" Kakashi didn't like his commander-in-cheif's tone. "What are you saying, Hokage-sama?" He didn't like her tone one bit. And as she spoke his face paled beneath his mask, his thoughts a silent prayer for absolution.

 _Forgive me, sensei, for what I am planning to do to your son_

* * *

Naruto sat frowning as he trained in training ground 4. Darkness had fallen long ago, and Kakashi-sensei and Yamato-taicho and gone into town to... report or document or something, he hadn't really been paying attention. He didn't really understand anyway, and he had no inclination of gaining that understanding. All he wanted, all he focused on, was to get stronger so he could complete Yondaime's technique and apply the power of the elements to the Rasengan.

If he did that he could defend himself against Akatsuki.

If he did that he could protect Konoha properly.

If he did then maybe he could bring Sasuke back.

But try as he might at splitting leaves with nothing but his chakra he could not get anywhere. As neither Kakashi or Yamato-taicho were present as he sat in the shadow of a tree on the edge of the great meadow that was Training Ground 4 he restricted himself to only four clones and five leaves, a fraction of the hundreds he had created earlier while doing this exercise. Kakashi had told him to while he himself went to speak with the Hokage.

Naruto growled in frustration as he opened his hands and looked down upon the small oaken leaf lying cradled in his palm. Not so much as a damn indention or mark in it. Maybe it was because his chakra was strange.

Kakashi hadn't said so when he saw the paper in Naruto's hands shatter, but Naruto knew something was up when it did. The paper was only supposed to either wrinkle with Raiton, crumble with Doton, burn up with Katon, get soggy with Suiton or split in twain with Fuuton. But when Naruto had chanelled his chakra into it none of those things had happened. It had grown stiff as he held it between his fingers, stiff and cold with blossoms of frost spreading over the surface of the paper. Suddenly, just as it had stiffened and grown so cold as to numb his fingers, it had shattered like dropped glass, breaking into near-transparent shards that melted as soon as they touched the ground after they fell from his hands.

It was obvious. His chakra was abnormal, fucked up.

"Kind of like our childhood, ne?" one clone said from the other side of the tree, his thoughtpaterns and speech inflections identical to Naruto's own and thus he was thinking the exact same thing.

"Suppose so" another clone spoke from beside Naruto.

"Yupp" said a third from beside the first clone. "Fucked up. As if we didn't have enough shit to deal with already".

Naruto sighed hard and lowered his hands, the leaf still in them, to his lap as he let his head fall back against the rough bark of the tree. In public, around others, he would smile and bluster, keep his swagger and play the earnest and eager fool who felt naught but joy, was naught but sound and fury. But when alone with no one but his clones and faced with certain failure the battle against his bitterness was one he often lost.

Was he sick? He was just getting off a cold so that might have been why his chakra was behaving oddly. Or maybe someone, probably Orochimaru-pedo or Sasuke-teme, had placed a seal over the one on his stomach and distorted his energy flow when he wasn't looking. Or maybe he... He pressed his eyes shut as hard as he could against the angst coiling in his gut. Maybe he was just a failure at that too. Just like at Genjutsu. Just like how he had tried and sworn to bring Sasuke back the first time. How he had failed to keep his best friend from becoming a traitor.

He hated angsting. He hated how depressed he got when his thoughts ran away from him like that. He had to focus on the task in front of him... otherwise he would lose to despair.

So he raised his hands again and set about continuing the exercise along with the four other Narutos sitting with their backs against that tree. And so they sat until Sunrise when Kakashi found him, dark rings around his eyes, his tan skin paled from exhaustion and a disgusted sneer upon his lips. Kakashi regarded the boy from a distance at first, wondering how he was supposed to break the news onto the boy, And still... he had maintained five clones throughout the entire night without any visible effort whatsoever.

By now he had no right to be surprised when that boy did the impossible. He seemed to do it all the time.

"Yo, ohayou" Kakashi waved at the lad as he appraoched him, and Naruto looked up with a tired smile that bleied his frustration while the dawn painted the sky gold and the clouds upon the eastern horizon pink like cotton candy.

"Ohayou, Kakashi-sensei" the kid said, his smile fading slowly as he opened his hands and showed what was inside to his teacher. "Sorry" he muttered in a manner most downcast and unlike him "I failed".

"Naruto" the Hatake genius looked upon that oaken leaf, discoloured and stiff and rimmed with frost from the immense cold generated by the young man's chakra. "You didn't fail".

"Of course I did!" Naruto snapped at him. "Nothing happened that was supposed to happen-attebayo! The paper didn't split or nothing like it should have, and the leaf just freezes instead of getting cut!"

"Naruto" Kakashi spoke softly, cutting his triade short as he crouched down on the ground, taking the frozen leaf out of the boy's hands. "Not all failures are just failures, you know? Sometime not succeeding at something is the best way to learn, and by not doing what's expected" he held up the leaf so that the dawning sunlight glinted of the particles of frost along its edge. "By making mistakes we can stumble over something more tremendous than we could have ever thought possible".

"Sensei, I don't understand" the boy frowned and looked away. "I'm no good with... books and words and lessons like that. I learn by doing things, by fighting, by doing other stuff. This experimenting... I'm not sure if I'll be any good at it".

"Let me explain the elemental weaknesses and strengths, Naruto" Kakashi began as he moved to sit beside the boy, picking up a stick with which to draw in the soft earth with. "Think of them like this" he drew them up in order as if the tips of an invisible five-pointed star., and then made lines connecting them until they became the corners of a pentacle. "Each element; Water, Fire, Wind, Lightning and Earth; are organised like this. And Ninjutsu using the elemental transformations have weaknesses and strengths that corresponds to their natures. Earth is weak against lightning, as thunder scorches the ground and shoots electricity through it, but strong against water which it can dyke away or lead to other places. Water is thus weak against earth, but strong against fire as water quenches flame and puts it out. Fire is strong against wind, as wind bolsters fire. Wind is strong against lightning, as it's a natural isolator. And lightning is strong against...?" he drifted off and arched a lonesome eyebrow at Naruto.

"Earth" Naruto nodded, understanding the simple circle. "So which elemental transformation affinity do I have?"

"That will take some explaining" Naruto sighed predictably, but Kakashi pushed on regardless. "Everyone can, if they train hard enough, make their chakra transform into any four of these five, but most often for Jounin-level Shinobi they have marginal capability of three or two. I can't do Fuuton – wind-based chakra – to save my life, since my affinity is Raiton, lightning".

"So you can't use the element your affinity is weak towards?" Naruto asked, and Kakashi looked at him, surprised at the lad having gotten the lesson behind his words and the implications thereoff. Perhaps he was a natural Ninjutsu type?

"Quite correct, in most cases anyway. But that's not all. See, you've noticed other kinds of Ninjutsu, haven't you? Tenzo-kohai-"

"Yamato-taicho" the blonde corrected.

"-uses Mokuton" the Sharingan master went on unperturbed. "And many other shinobi uses other types of jutsu – the Nara have their Shadow... thing, the Akimichi have their fat... thing, the Aburame have their... bugs and stuff. They can do that because their chakra has unique properties, causing it to act in a certain way. This is called a Kekkei Genkai-"

"Like Sasuke's Sharingan?" Naruto interrupted. "And yours?"

Sasuke again. It was always Sasuke, wasn't it? "Sure, but think of it like this: If you aren't born with a very specific kind of affinity you cannot use these special techniques. They are an expression of your special chakra, and you will have an easier time using them. Some don't have to be trained, using their Kekkei Genkai-granted abilities instinctively, while others" he gave Naruto a long look under which the young man couldn't hope but to squirm. "Others have their Kekkei Genkai hidden from the world until you have them start their elemental affinity training".

"So what's my elemental affinity, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto wondered eagerly, starting to get bored, wanting to get back to training and beating Akatsuki and Sasuke. "Come on!"

"Your chakra is strongly Yang-charged" the jinchuuriki quirked his ears at that, wondering what the hell that meant. "And it is also, like Tenzo-kohai's chakra, a combination of two elements – which is really, really rare, you should know".

"Which ones?"He was doubly eager now, finally receiving some definite answers.

"Fuuton and Suiton" Kakashi said with some great finality in his words. "You're the first to be born with a Ninjutsu-type Kekkei Genkai in Konoha since Shodaime Hokage, Senju Hashirama. And with your immense chakra you can most likely transcend even his achievements".

"Be better than Shodiame?" Naruto uttered in a most strangled way, like he was choking on the grandiose nature of that notion. "Are you taking the piss?"

"You've fought someone who had little chakra, almost no training in his Kekkei Genkai, and still nearly managed to kill you and Sasuke" Kakashi spoke a little rougher than usual at the memory. "One with the same Kekkei Genkai as you".

"Haku" Naruto sank back into his deep pondering about that smiling, devoted, ultimately tragically destined transvestite, and the deep impression that the boy had left on him. "Hyooton?"

"Yes, Hyooton; the elemental transformation of Ice" Kakashi stated with a nod. "Think back on what I said before about weaknesses. Sasuke has the double affinity, Kekkei Genkai, for Katon and Raiton. What are these weak against?"

"Katon is weak against Suiton" Naruto nodded as he finally understood "and Fuuton beats Raiton. I'm" the thought occurred to him at last, leaving him dourly saddened. "I'm the one best suited to defeating him, aren't I?" Kakashi nodded slowly in turn.

"And with the combining of two nature transformations their weaknesses vanish" Kakashi went on for the last part of his little teaching lecture, his throat going dry. "Fire cannot melt ice on its own. And Thunder cannot break it. With this power, with your power" his eye looked deep into Naruto's, trying to impress on him the importance of what was being said "you can go further than anyone ever have before you".

What did you say to that? How did you react to find yourself suddenly talented more than anyone else around you?

Naruto looked at that leaf in his teacher's hand and took up another that had drifted onto the summer grass. He took it in his fist and closed his eyes while his clones watched on in silence, and with a breif and low huff he focused his chakra into the space above the palm of his hand. He didn't try to cut it, he didn't try to bend it or burn it or move it or make it wet; he was simply applying as much chakra as he could.

Kakashi focused his gaze on the boy as Naruto opened his eyes and unclenched his fist. He found that leaf frozen so completely that the water particles in it had crystallised before they had separated from the longer webs of chlorophyll and cellulite molecules in it. He held it up, a transparent leaf now made of deeply green ice.

" _So ka_ " Naruto said before he crushed that leaf in his hand, his thoughts bending towards battle.

 _Sasuke, watch me!_

* * *

"Come on!" Hyuuga Neji cried as he took the low and looping fighting stance of the Juuken. "Fight me! Show me all you have, Hinata-sama!"

"Hai!" Hinata replied with a curt bow before she took the same mirrored stance, both their teams and their former Jounin-sensei in attendance and sitting observing them along the walls of the dojo at the Hyuuga compound. Gai and Lee were staring with starry-eyed and rapt attention, the elder looking like he wanted to take notes oh so desperately. Meanwhile his last student, Ten-Ten, was sitting between the slouching Kiba and the stiff Shino, a dull expression on her face as she slowly twirled a kunai around her index finger. Further down that line sat Hanabi and Hiashi, both Hyuuga, both fighters, both wishing to see how Hinata had improved over the years.

All that and much, much more was what Hinata saw the moment she activated her Byakugan. When she was little and had first started using it the sensory overload that accompanied the activation of her clan Doujutsu was nothing short of disorienting and somewhat painful, resulting in skull-splitting migraines and nausea. But over the years, especially the last three, she had gotten used to it, and here she was, facing off against the genius of her clan just like she had three years ago, and by the look in his eye he was not going to hold back.

Good. She didn't want him to hold back, because neither was she going to.

"Hajime!" Hiashi decreed in a loud voice, so loud that Kurenai-sensei was startled out of her deep thoughts. Hinata had noticed that her teacher was more silent as of late, more inclined towards deep thoughts and long bouts of brooding, especially if she saw Asuma-sensei of the Ino-Shika-Cho combo team that was team Ten. Naturally Hinata knew what was wrong with her teacher – her eyes saw everything beneath heaven, after all – but she kept that to herself. Kurenai no doubt wanted to deal with her impromptu pregnancy on her own.

Distracted as she was by thoughts of her teacher Hinata allowed Neji the advantage of the first move, an advantage upon which he seized immediately. He struck immediately towards her head as he leapt at her, two fingers extended, and in the last possible second, her breath caught in her throat, Hinata veered to the side and deflected the blow. She frowned at herself.

 _Focus_ , her inner voice said. _Focus, or get nearly killed again_.

She danced aside as Neji struck again, lashing out with his other hand, but she caught the movement before it was complete and ducked beneath it, her fingers brushing over Neji's upper triceps. His entire arm jerked and the genius leapt back, narrowing his eyes at his cousin. Or was it half-sister? Their fathers had been fraternal twins, feeding off the same ammoniac as foetuses, and so they were sprung from at least half of the same genetic template. "Ippon" he noted against his uncle, who nodded, before he looked back to Hinata. "Shall we continue?"

"Certainly, Neji-niisan" she bowed slightly again and made ready once more. "Come at me" a smile curled her lips as she spoke informally, perhaps for the first time in her life "bro".

As the two clashed again in a flurry of blows and kicks Hiashi coughed sternly. Certainly she was slipping into bad habits ever since that boy had returned to the village. Of course, since Naruto had saved the village against Subaku no Gaara, fetched the Godaime to the village and went training with the Sannin-super-perv known as Jiraiya, most people saw him now as a bit of a hero instead as of a menace. But most people were not Hiashi. Most people did not have to endure what he did.

Always, always – damn always! - his eldest daughter had gone on and on about that boy, blushing whenever he was mentioned at supper with the rest of the Main Branch of the Hyuuga clan, and whenever they inquired about her academy days she would always say something to the effect of "You wouldn't believe what Naruto-kun did!" or "did you know what Naruto-kun said to Iruka-sensei?". Every.

Damn.

Time.

Hiashi had gotten sick of it all eventually. Frankly it was simply a matter of overexposure to the boy's reputation, as he had no opinions one way or the other about him being a Jinchuuriki. It had gotten a little better for the first year after Naruto left Konoha, if only because Hinata began talking about training and studying instead of that boy all the time. But then...

Then she had gone into puberty.

 _Oh boy_.

Outwardly she was collected, calm, shy and silent, prone to stutter whenever she was insecure or nervous, but inwardly she had plenty of repressed energy and hidden depths. She took up playing instruments, trying such things as the Shamisen and the Koto at his behest. If she was going to make some noise around the home he was going to make damn sure it was traditional noise that matched the Hyuuga aesthetic along with her traditional training in calligraphy, poetry, song and dance.

That lasted for about a month before she went instead to an outlet that matched her internal energy much better: the electric guitar. What had followed had been hell to Hiashi's tender ears as the girls spent weeks playing increasingly less excruciating versions of "Smoke on the Water", "Holy Diver" and "Iron Man" all throughout the night. Reluctantly, very much so, he eventually had to admit she was getting pretty good.

He stopped admitting that when she took a fondness to a band from Tetsu no Kuni known as Metallica. Even his wife Hikari, so gentle and tender and now prone to going about her days with plugs in her ears, could now recite at least fifteen of the band's songs by heart, and her insistence that the girl be allowed to explore her own artistic direction was wearing a bit thin even to her.

And the fact that Hiashi found himself tapping his foot along to the riffs at times only vexed him further.

And then there were the pictures and the posters and the miscellaneous items that suddenly cluttered about his daughter's previously so fastidiously tidy room. She had a pile of diaries with black and lavender covers piled onto her writing desk, hearts drawn onto them in pink, into which she would write songs, dreams, thoughts and reflections and, he really hoped, neglected to note down state secrets. She was a Shinobi, not some lovestruck tart! She had taken to photography, a skill aided much by her Byakugan-granted occular precision, lining one wall of her room with pictures of her friends and family and places she wanted to visit or thought beautiful.

But worst of all...

Worst of all were the damn posters.

She would cover the ceiling above her bed and dot the walls around her room with posters depicting - he believed the term youngsters in this day and age used was gyraou – tanned and blonde men with bright eyes, bereft of shirt or trousers or both, preening before the camera at various often exotic location. Pictures that were, quite frankly, mildly pornographic in what they showed. Pictures that made his wife blush and his younger, more sensible daughter, turn her head with interest. When he asked her to take them down she replied politely but firmly in her low and tender voice that she wouldn't, because it was her room and she decorated it as she pleased. And he couldn't very well deny her that too. She wasn't the heir to the clan any more, and so she didn't have to act according to their standards and expectations any longer.

What was the proverb now again? Angels fall first? It's always the quiet ones? Whichever was the most applicable one. Hinata had fallen from grace in the eyes of the clan elders, and while fallen she wallowed in her freedom.

No, he had never hated Naruto for being the Jinchuuriki. He did, however, completely loath the boy by virtue of what he had done to his daughter. But at the same time...

He watched Hinata fight and saw the change in her. Ever since he had returned to Konoha she had played the guitar less than usual, stopped fawning over the hunky poster boys altogether, and devoted seemingly her every free and waking hour to training and sparring. Neji, who had often supervised or helped in her training, had called to this public spar. Though only their teams and Hinata's immediate Hyuuga family was watching, except for her mother who could not stand the sight of blood or her child getting injured, this was her time to shine. Neji wanted to show the clan what she could do.

And what she was doing was winning.

She had a hair on Neji in skill – just a hair – but that she, who had been considered so weak, and Neji, who had been for the longest time considered invincible, were almost equal was a feat of great prowess on its own. The fact that she was scorring more hits than him was, however, impossible. And yet Hiashi saw it before him, how she bobbed and weaved and flowed around the Juuken strikes her cousin delivered like a true master, graceful as the wind, as subtle yet forceful as the sea itself as her strikes landed with great force and precision yet hardly seemed to touch him. Again and again she matched him and gave more than he, Hanabi staring in awe while Hiashi was merely staring.

"Hakke: Kuushoo!" Neji roared as he unleashed one of his most powerful techniques, a Juuken strike so powerful as to send a pillar of air blasting from his palm most explosively.

"Hakke: Kuushoo!" Hinata matched his force perfectly, cancelling it out and sending it spiralling against a far wall, blowing out the wood-framed paper wall panes and crashing against someone's bathroom. Loud cries echoed throughout the house as servants and clansmen both went into a panic, and somewhere a cat howled as a beam landed upon its tail.

"Yosh!" Lee cried in ecstatic enthusiasm, barely containing himself, while the others stared terrified or shocked at the carnage the two Hyuuga had caused. The youths themselves stood panting, staring each other down with severe eyes, drained and exhausted.

"It's time for the final blow" Hanabi noted silently, and Hiashi nodded. They had seen enough Juuken duels to know the ebb and flow of them by heart.

Neji readied his signature technique, the Hakke: Hasengeki, the Mountain Crusher, a Kuushoo, vacuum palm strike, delivered at close range that could cripple nearly any fore. He just needed to get close enough to-

Hinata's new technique was even more devstating, and it took a lot less time to execute. "Juuho" she cried as she dashed forwards, her chakra manifesting as indigo flames around her hand in the form of a roaring lion, jaws agape in primal rage "Shiken!"

A small explosion rocked the room and temporarily blinding everyone attending. And Neji, at the epicentre of the explosion that struck his stomach, lanced out through the rear doors of the dojo, out into the garden. He landed unconscious in a koi pond, fish swimming up into his nose, face down in the pool and made completely drenched.

Hiashi blinked. He realised that he very much liked the Uzumaki boy for driving his eldest daughter towards excellence.

Hanabi stared at her sister like she was the earthly manifestation of Buddha.

The others gaped.

"Neji-kun!" Ten-Ten cried and leapt to her feat, running after her teammate in a panic, hoping that he didn't drown in the koi fish pond.

"Most youthful, Hinata-sama!" Gai proclaimed proudly and gave her the sitting version of his Nice Guy Pose (patent pending). "What do you say, Lee?"

"I love you, Hinata-san!" Lee proclaimed boisterously and jumped onto his feet, startling the now terrified daughter of the Hyuuga into a mouse-like squeak as she suddenly shot very close to her. "You must train with me! I shall absorb all your youthful vigour through-"

"Knock it off, monster-brow!" Kiba socked him atop the head, shutting him up with nary a bump on the noggin. "Great work, Hinata!" he said emphatically her way.

"Indeed" Shino said levelly. "Quite skilled". Coming from Shino that might as well have been a solemn vow from him to name his first born after her, for he rarely, if ever, praised.

"Great work, Hinata" Kurenai smiled warmly at her and laid a hand upon her shoulder. "How about we go to dinner tonight? Yakiniku, with" she knew Hinata had quite the sweat-tooth "zenzai for desert?" She perked up like a ground hog and smiled as radiantly as a sun at the mention of the sweat red bean pudding she liked so much.

"Yosh!" Kiba proclaimed while Akamaru barked in agreement from the Hyuuga kennels, terrifying the household pets of the clan. Kiba never turned down meat, especially Yakinku, and even preferred it raw to the disgust of most people.

"Most agreeable" Shino nodded. He, as the Super-ego to Hinata's Ego and Kiba's Id, never seemed to care one way or the other about food as long as his bugs got a share. Sustenance he saw as something necessary, and found little pleasure in eating.

"Hinata, wait-" Hiashi asked of her, to which Kurenai turned to look at him.

"What? I'm taking my student out on the town, and since she's only the second favourite daughter" both Hiashi and Hanabi flinched as if struck while Hinata grimaced uncertainly "I think she does what she pleases. Isn't that right, Hinata-chan?"

"S-sure, Kurenai-sensei" Hinata nodded and accompanied the rest of her team out of the dojo, leaving her family ashamed and team Gai desperately and/or joyously fawning over the downed Neji. "I" she said as they went towards the great doors of the Hyuuga compound "I p-probably shouldn't have-"

"Neji-teme only got himself to blame" Kiba gruffed. He was a simple boy, seeing the world in black and white much like certain blonde Shinobi who's name could be mentioned. There was Pack, and there was Not-Pack, and Neji most certainly was of the latter category, and had been ever since he damn near killed Hinata in the events of their first Chunin exam. It's said that the Inuzuka never forget the smell of one that has wronged them. "And so do they! Punting you down the hierarchy like that... It's bull-"

"Kiba, language" Kurenai reminded softly as they exited the doors of the main compound, Kiba summoning Akamaru to his side with a whistle. Distant crashes, terrified shouts and the thundering of paws belonging to a four hundred pound beast of a dog subsequently echoed throughout the compound. "Very well done, my dear" she smiled at the girl that was something of a daughter to her. "I think that in the entire village... only Gai can beat you in Taijutsu now".

"Yeah" Kiba grinned and winked at Hinata "wait until you show that technique to a certain someone!"

"Someone?" Hinata wondered in her customarily low voice, that special kind of blush creeping into her cheeks. Was he talking about-

"The blonde one" Kurenai supplied with a further grin.

"The troublesome one" Shino added in a most Shikamaruesque way.

"The one that always smells like foxes and ramen" Kiba finished, his grin going lecherous. "Now, what's Kiba's forty-second rule of seduction?"

"Always h-have a c-c-condom ready?" Hinata stammered out, blushing beat-red. Ever since Kiba and Shino had found out about her infatuation for the blonde knuckle head the two had taken great strides to push them together by making her work up the courage to confess to him. Shino had given some advice about the mating habits of bugs, and after he made everyone vomit up the contents of their stomachs Kurenai had forbidden him from ever helping again. Kiba, on the other hand, was more enthusiastic but never the less weird, if only in another way.

"No, that's rule number two" he shook his head as Akamaru bounded to their side, panting happily with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, most of a door-frame handing off his shoulders along with screws and plaster from where he had dragged it out. "Rule forty-two: strength is sexy. He'll be incredibly turned on once he finds out you can kick his ass".

"Where are you getting this from?" Kurenai furrowed her brow at her wolfen student as they exited the gates of the compound and made their way towards Konoha proper. As they went the discussion went on around Hinata, she herself not paying it much heed despite it being nominally about her.

She had started thinking about a new technique of her own, something she could do to advance the Juuken arts, when she heard about Naruto-kun being promised elemental transformation training by Kakashi-sensei. He was the force driving her, the goal to which she worked, her inspiration in her music and her training and her _Nindo_. He was the sun, joy and hope and determination, an endless font of strength to her. She loved him, and above all else, more than anything else in the world, she wanted him to notice her.

The best way for her to do that was to become strong. The thing she wanted most was for him to see her.

 _Naruto_ , she prayed internally. _Watch me_!

Of course, like most of the village, she had no idea of Naruto's newfound power, or how it was going to shape the events to come.

Suffice to say that life was going to become _very_ different.

* * *

...And scene!

 **A/N** : I tried to establish the three main character motivations in this chapter, exemplified by their final thoughts. In a way they all want the same thing – live up to their own notions of another. Kakashi wants to be worthy of his long lost sensei, Naruto wants to become strong enough to make everything the way it was before, and Hinata wants to draw the eye of her beloved to herself.

However, it must be said that Kakashi's silent invocation is the opposite of Hinata's and Naruto's, and I hoped that I brought that across. The others ask the target of their obsession to look upon them as they excel, while Kakashi begs his deceased master to avert his eyes from him in his shame. But in the end they're three people, just trying to make the best of what they have in their life. What could go wrong?

Let me just indulge a slight spoiler: a lot, as it turns out.

This story will take the basic premise of Naruto and tart it up in goth make-up to make it seem a bit more... mature. With that I do of course mean the expected sex and drugs and gunfights (and cigarettes!). However, there will be other additions in a more mature implication of the word "mature", as in philosophy, the implications of justice, ponderous musing as to the meaning of existence and other stuff like that. All of this will, of course, be served up with a hearty amount of charm, comedy and verbal ticks.

A slightly overly ambitious project for my first fic, you say? Dear reader, it's only under pressure that we grow.

And a final note: Hinata being a musician always made sense to me. She's introverted, shy, no doubt sexually and socially repressed from her traditional upbringing, and as she entered puberty all that pent up energy had to go somewhere, right? Also, I've always wanted her to be a little stronger than she was depicted in Canon material, as I've sort of have a thing for writing skilled and powerful female character. Think of her as taking many of Sakura's moments in the story when Sakura gets other character development.

Also, Hinata having a thing for Metallica... I did at her age too, and consider that my slight personal indulgence.

Please read and review, and DFTBA :-D!


	2. The Burden of Teachers

Finally; the long awaited second chapter of the White Fox is revealed! (Long awaited as in, like, 40 hours since the last chapter went up). Let me just say that I love all the feedback and the reads and follows and everything! ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou! Squeeeee!

*Slaps self in the face again* Focus!

Some musing ere we start then, if you would indulge me:

At the behest of a reviewer (you know who you are, and thank you! :-D) I decided to change the spelling of certain words. For example, Danzo will be spelled Danzō, and techniques, terms and nouns preciously spelled with double letters incorrectly will from now on use emphasised letters, like "ō".

BTW, Kudos to those among you who caught the Pretty Reckless reference in the A/N at the end of the last chapter.

The theme-song for this chapter and the last chapter is _The best is yet to come_ by the German rock band Scorpion. Link here. The next chapter has the same theme-song, after which the story picks up properly.

Now; onwards, and cry- *THUMP* Ow! Buggernutts!

* * *

Chapter 2: The Burden of Teachers

* * *

"Asuma-sensei! Asuma-sensei!"

Sarutobi Asuma was sitting on the veranda of the Nara compound's main house, the only clan manor that forwent fortified walls and fences and gates for dense thicket of trees surrounding their grounds, a forest in which their venerable deer had their habitat. Asuma spent more time there than he did at the Sarutobi hold, a place he hardly ever went to anymore after the death of his dearly departed dad, or even his own studio apartment, and on that porch he often took the time to relax and play Shougi with his favourite student and teach the student of his favourite girl the guitar.

"Hinata, you're not minding the rhythm properly today" he frowned while looking down on the Shougi board set between him and Shikamaru, Hinata sitting on the boards some distance further down with an acoustic guitar in her hands, idly plucking at the strings. "Four by four, not three by four, okay? Again, take it from the top-"

And in that moment a blonde Shinobi appeared running down the dirt path towards them, the sweat making his tan skin glisten in the sunlight that beamed down from a cloudless sky. He was shouting Asuma's name, and Hinata's hand seem to trip over the strings, making Asuma's mouth twist around the cigarette between his lips in a discordant grimace.

"Take it easy with that thing" he craned his neck around and shot her a glare, the young woman's head falling forwards to obfuscate her face in a curtain of indigo-black silken hair. "You've might have bought your electric guitar on your own, but that one is mine. I got it from a friend".

"I thought you said you killed her" Shikamaru muttered as the Sarutobi pariah made his move, ignoring the swiftly approaching blonde for now.

"Well, she worked for the Lord Daimyo Zozen's spymaster" Asuma replied with a shrug. "She tried to kill me, then she tried to shag me, and then we fought together, and then she had to die. Orders, you know. Didn't like it, but I sure did it".

"A... troublesome chain of events" the Nara commented and moved his lancer piece to capture one of Asuma's pawns. "What brought it about?"

"Politics" his teacher replied in the same tone one would speak of tapeworms. "'The corridors of power are walled with compromise and floored with poisoned daggers' was something my da would say. Clever old todger, him. Hope he watches over us now".

"Asuma-sensei!" the blonde orange wonder halted before the veranda and the people seated upon it in a skid that kicked dust into the air from the dirt path. "I need you to teach me!"

"Rude little bugger, aren't ya, Naruto-kun?" Asuma smirked and turned away from the game, taking a deep pull of his cigarette and exhaling with a sigh. "Can't you see I'm helping Shikamaru stay on the top of his-"

"You will lose in four, five or six turns, depending on what moves you make" Shikamaru told him shortly, at which the former Guardian of Fire made a peeved grunt, and shot a look at Naruto. "Yo".

"Yo, Shika-pine" Naruto grinned, causing the Nara heir to sputter and choke at the nickname in indignation. "Since he's won already-"

"The battle isn't over until you've won, given up or died" Asuma said and flicked his cigarette, sending a small clot of ash falling to wooden the deck beside where he sat. "And even then you can go out in a way that makes you win the war. You do what you must to protect the King".

"What's he on about, Shika-pine?" Naruto frowned, obviously not understanding, and Shikamaru sighed as he turned away from his game proper.

"I can't be asked" he groaned loudly at all of them. He just wanted to spend a nice afternoon with music and a game, doing fuck all until dinner when maybe he would read a book or something. Why did everyone always bother him with obtuse requests for training or socialising and insipid fucking questions? "Something about what's most important in the world".

"That's easy" Naruto shrugged, and Asuma cocked an eyebrow at him, amused and surprised in equal measure at his ready response. "The people precious to you-attebayo. Your comrades, your friends" a shadow seemed to pass by in his cerulean eyes "your family. That's the most important, ne?"

 _Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash_.

"Hm" the Sarutobi pariah furrowed his forehead confoundedly. Sort of wise beyond his years, wasn't he? "Alright, I'll indulge you, Naruto-kun" he nodded shortly, earning a grin from the blonde. "Was there something you needed my advice on?"

"Aye!" Naruto perked up, suddenly remembering what he had sprinted all the way to the Nara compound to do. "So I was doing some... elemental affinity training or something, whatever it's called again, and since Kakashi-sensei is off talking to Tsunade-obaachan – again! - I'm stuck with no teacher" he pouted like a snubbed child.

"So you're undertaking advanced Ninjutsu training at your age?" Asuma scratched his beard absently. "Impressive. You intend to make your own signature technique?"

"You bet, Smoker-taicho!" Naruto enthused with a bright grin. "I'm going to complete the whatever affinity training, and make a really awesome jutsu worthy of a future Hokage!"

"Huh" Shikamaru snorted at the proclamation of his peer "Everyone's training so hard. Even Hinata has been giving her all".

"Oh yeah!" Naruto perked up and looked to the girl in question who right then looked like she wanted to hide behind her guitar. "How's digs, Hinata-Chan? How is your training going?"

"Fine, t-thank you" she blushed at him over the wooden rim of her guitar's acoustic box. "I'm working hard, and slowly getting stronger... I hope".

"Don't be so troublesome and lie" Shikamaru reprimanded before looking glumly at Naruto. "She beat Neji, yesterday. Apparently she pulled some super Jūken strike out of her arse and pounded his soggy self into a lake".

"It was a pond, Shikamaru-kun" she corrected in her tiny voice "and it's not done yet. I can only make one lion, not two right now. I need to train up my chakra reserve first-"

"Awesome, Hinata-chan!" Naruto interrupted while Shikamarue wondered what on earth she was going on about before he decided that he really didn't care. "I knew you had it in you! You're way more awesome than that gloomy spod! Wait" Naruto suddenly noticed the big hunk of wood that was a musical instrument which Hinata was curling her body around. "I didn't know you played. Are you any good?"

"I-I think so" she blushed shyly, which was her standard modus operandi when around the lad she fancied.

"Of course she bloody well is" Asuma snorted from aside. "She's gotten me to teach her, right? She's more than good – she's fantastic!"

"Right on, Hinata!" Naruto did an uncanny likeness of Gai's Nice Guy Pose at her, and she felt herself swoon, which in itself was odd. Asuma silently shook his head in disapproval from aside as he looked at the young two. Would they just shag already and get it out of their system? Life is short, and dancing ineffectual circles around the one you love out of embarrassment is just a waste of precious time. "Awesome at fighting and awesome at music, too! We should totally spar sometime-attebayo! Hinata? Oi, Hinata?!"

But it was no use, for the girl had blushed bright red and fallen back onto the wooden deck, unconscious and prone. She had fainted. Again.

"Why does she keep doing that when I'm around her?" Naruto wondered and scratched his head, and Asuma had the sudden urge to knock some sense into him using gleefully excessive force. "Anyway, Asuma-sensei" Naruto turned to the Sarutobi pariah, shrugging as he did. "How does Fuuton feel to use?"

 _What an odd question_ , Asuma thought. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I've sort of got a condition that makes it hard for people to tell what my nature affinity is". Naruto hated lying, but after Kakashi had told him about his Kekkei Genkai yesterday morning before he had been sworn to secrecy. Kakashi-sensei had told him that he shouldn't tell anyone in Konoha about his ability to use the Hyōton until the time was right... whatever that meant. But he still needed help, and as Kakashi wasn't present he had to go elsewhere. So he asked around if anyone knew a Fuuton user in Konoha.

He figured if he knew how Fuuton and Suiton was supposed to feel like on their own, and how to control them then, then maybe he could find out how to properly use his own Hyōton. It was a mixture of the two, so that made sense to him. Still, he hated lying, especially to the people he knew. "So I'm kind of going around, seeing if anyone can tell me what the elements is supposed to feel like when you use them. Maybe then I'll figure out what my nature release affinity is. And since you are the only one around these parts that as a Fuuton affinity..."

"I see" Asuma did think that was just a bit suspicious, but Naruto never lied and was always earnest to a fault. He might as well help the boy, despite his reservations. "You want to feel how wind chakra is supposed to move, and how to make it do what you want, right?"

"Yeah, that's it!" Naruto nodded eagerly as Hinata was slowly picking herself up from her drowsy state and regaining consciousness. "So what is it?"

"You can't force the wind with a straight pull or push, like you can with Doton or Katon, or lead it along yourself like you can with Raiton. You've got to move it in circles, otherwise it just rages on where it wants to go. And when you make it move you've gotta split it in halves and make them roll against each other until you make a sort of edge. You can then use it to cut stuff, which is quite useful, as it turns out. If you don't understand then you're probably not a Fuuton type-"

"I get it" Naruto nodded with a grin, inwardly understanding completely. His own chakra moved a bit like that, come to think of it. "Do you know anyone around who has a Suiton affinity?"

"Suiton? There's always Gai, but he's as far as you can get from a Ninjutsu-type and still be a shinobi. Or Kurenai" Asuma caught himself thinking about her supple skin and her lovely curves before he forced the dirty thoughts out of his mind. "But she's a Genjutsu specialist, so she might not be the right one to ask. Try-"

"Naruto-kun". A sudden blur appeared a ways down the road, and Asuma sensed a... healthy chakra, feeling almost like it was rustling like the leaves of trees over a softly babbling brook, smelling like fresh earth.

"Yamato-chan!" Asuma grinned and turned around to see the man once known as Tenzō stand there with three men in tow, all of them wearing ANBU masks. Seeing the sort-of stuck-up Mokuton user was always a bright point in Asuma's daily life, as teasing him, prodding him and otherwise annoying him was a true pleasure. Yamato took it all in good faith... most of the time. Sometimes he got this look of icy murder in his eyes, and then you backed the hell off if you wanted to retain your sanity. Otherwise, swell guy, if a little bad at parties. But then again, so was Kakashi. Gai on the other had was always the life of any festivity he went to, and Kurenai...

Asuma stifled a perverted chuckle before he looked closer at Yamato, and at once his easy and ready feelings were morphed into concern. Tenzō did not look happy, not in the least, seeming like he actually wanted to be somewhere else or do anything else than what he was currently doing, and though Asuma got nothing from the three men following him he knew that masked ANBU was never a good sign. "Yo, Yamato-chan" Asuma unconsciously reached for his trench knives. "What's going on?"

"Please do not a female honorific to my name, Sarutobi-san" Yamato requested absently before he looked to Naruto once more. "The Hokage needs you to undergo a physical exam, Naruto-kun, related to an... incident during your last mission. We're here to escort you to it".

"Uhm, right" Naruto nodded hesitantly and made to go along while the three he left behind gave each other long looks in confusion. "Well, thanks for the help, Asuma-sensei!" he turned to wave at them, suddenly seeming as happy as always. "Keep it up, Hinata!" he looked the the shy Hyūga, who gave him a blush and a tentative smile. "And don't forget; you and me got to spar sometime!"

"S-sure, Naruto-kun" she waved at his back as he went along with Yamato and the other three mysterious folk in masks. He just wanted to spar, right? It wasn't like a _date_ or anything – At the very thought she had to stop herself from breathing quickly. Then again, it might be a bit like a date, right? Maybe she should dress up for the occasion, put on her best _gi_ , and make sure she didn't do anything to make him dislike her. And maybe they could go to diner afterwards, and-

As Hinata struggled not to faint again the other two Shinobi on the terrace had other things on their mind.

"Something is off around him lately" Shikamaru noted disinterestedly, and Asuma nodded in turn. The boy was behaving oddly... well, more oddly than usual for Naruto. And there seemed to be an air of apprehension about Kakashi and Yamato when they were around him or spoke of him, as if they was fearing that he was about to snap. If it had anything to do with the Kyūbi then that might've explained it, but neither of the two had seemed to pay any heed to the beast before, so why would they have started now?

"Eh, Yamato-taicho" Naruto could be heard saying as he left with his escort. "What does using Suiton feel like?"

* * *

"Tsunade-dono" Naruto was too important to Kakashi for him to let her go through with this plan. "Please. I beg of you". He was doing something he had never done before, kneeling on the floor in front of her with his forehead pressed to the cold and merciless alabaster-white floor-tiles of the hospital, prostrating himself before his mistress like he had never done to anyone else. "Do not-"

"Do you think I revel in this vileness, Kakashi?" she glared at him where he bowed, preparing all the equipment she needed to perform the procedure. A special chamber beneath the Hokage tower by the Academy had housed a secret tunnel that led them to this place, a small underground facility far beneath the Hokage mountain once built and maintained by one of the vilest men the world had ever seen.

And here she was, continuing that man's despicable work. Tsunade wanted to retch at the mere thought of acting so much like her former team mate-turned-traitor, but she had to do this.

For the village, if nothing else. So she would rip the heart from her breast to keep this damned place safe.

She had never wanted to become Hokage, never wanted this responsibility. "This isn't easy, you should know" she informed him slowly, avoiding the mirror image of herself reflected in the blade of a scalpel upon a plastic sheet next to many other surgical instruments. The last thing she wanted was to lay eyes on a face she now despised. "I do not want to do this".

"Then why?" Kakashi pressed, and though the words and accusations came easy to him as he defended his student they cut like daggers in her. "He might-"

"Die?" she stopped, her hands laying limply upon the top of a modified dialysis machine designed to draw blood instead of bile. "I know. Believe me, I've gone over the snake's research more thoroughly than anyone else ever has". The things in those black folders, the words inked onto the thin papers in neat and web-like script, were not to be repeated to anyone. She would carry those secrets to the grave.

Such things man was not meant to know. Such things man was not equipped to fathom.

"But this"" she went on, sliding her gaze over the inside of the small and gloomy room as a few medical attendants, provided ever so graciously by Shimura Danzō, stood silent along the walls, waiting for their main attraction to arrive. "This might be the only way to preserve his genetic material. Grandfather's flesh had the property to replenish out of a single piece into a stable, almost plantlike, whole, which is why there is so many people out in the world that carry limbs grown from his DNA. Orochimaru only needed what remained of his corpse to extract the material needed but Naruto-" she grimaced at the mentioning of his name. "Naruto does not regenerate like Shodaime's body could. He can survive almost any injury, but his blood does not share that property once outside his bloodstream. So we will have to drain from him what we need to preserve".

"And then what?" Kakashi slowly rose, his voice dead more than anything else, void of emotion. "After you drained him to the point of death, what if he survives and recovers? Are you going to whore him out to the clans and the council like a thoroughbred too old to race? Or are you going to make his dead parents rage when you lock the women of the village inside a barn and force him to rape them-"

"Don't!" she snapped at him, tangerine eyes angry and piercing. "You know what will happen when you and I are dead, Kakashi?!" He was taken aback by the question, wondering what in the world she meant. "When Yamato is dead, when you and I are gone, who will protect this village? That lazy Nara brat doing fuck all all day? The Hyūga tykes, one with the leadership skills of a log and the other with the personality of a mouse? Or that Uchiha traitor scum you reared?!"

"Tsunade-sama" Kakashi stared at the sheer bitterness escaping her, as if emotions she was holding back broke through the dam that was civility and spilled into the light of day. "I-"

"Sorry" she gruffed, turning away from the eyes of the chamber to stifle the angry tears that threatened to start rolling down her cheeks. "It's just... The world is becoming more and more dangerous. The other villages go stronger. Akatsuki and Orochimaru scheme in the shadows. And that bastard Danzo and those two old hags Koharu and Homura... I'm trying to keep this place alive, Kakashi. Keep the dreams of those close to me alive".

"Maybe he will survive" Kakashi said finally, his voice a near whisper. "He's tougher than anyone else I've ever met. If anyone could survive getting all their blood sucked out of them, it would be him".

"I'm not doing this for the people alive right now" she spoke darkly in reply, more to herself than to him, as a distant silver bell began to chime, announcing that someone was making their way down the tunnel towards the hidden laboratory. "This is for the children not yet born, and everyone who died so that this village could go on".

After a couple of more minutes the rear wall of the laboratory slid open with a hiss to reveal an approaching party of five. Led by Yamato in the front Naruto was shepherded into the chamber, three of the foremost sealing experts in Konoha following shortly after him. Yamato himself shuddered at the sight of the far too familiar surroundings of Orochimaru's old hideout, the machines and the tools of the surgeon's trade causing repressed memories of pain and misery to stir deep within him. Naruto, of course, was oblivious to the mood at first, strutting into the room with all the confidence of a rooster at the henhouse, and for once Tsunade felt every single one of her years weigh down on her.

"Yo, Tsunade-obaachan" Naruto smiled at her, but his joy drifted away when he saw that she didn't respond with her customary threats of violence or poor assignment if he continued with his granny insistence. "What's going on?" he wondered and looked around, frowning at the laboratory equipment that stood at the ready. In the centre of the small room a long metal table, possibly meant for autopsies or surgery, straps hanging off it and dangling slowly with the sluggishly moving and stale air of the room.

"Naruto" her tone made him uncertain, so she forced herself to sound as normal as she could as not to spook him. "You are aware that you are in possession of a Ninjutsu-type Kekkei Genkai, are you not?"

"Of course I am-attebayo" he muttered. "Kakashi-sensei can't stop banging on about it. And he keeps telling me to keep it a secret for now". He sniffed the air, his acute senses picking up something no one else did. "Why does this place smell like formaldehyde?"

"This used to be a research facility" Tsunade hurriedly explained "dedicated towards exploring the application of Kekkei Genkai and how it is passed on through the genome". Of course, she declined to mention just who had been carrying out said research. "As we have discovered that you are in possession of the Hyōton, we will need to make some examinations. Examine your chakra in greater detail, check your physical state – things like that".

"Do we have to?" the blonde whined, and Kakashi flinched visibly flinched in the corner he had retreated into. "You know how I hate hospitals, Obaachan".

"We really should do this" she pressed, adopting an annoyed scowl "but I won't force you, if you feel like that. But if we did examine your chakra we might know how to help you realise your potential-"

"Help me bring Sasuke back?" Naruto cocked his head aside thoughtfully, giving the syringes upon one of the stands on the tables a suspicious eye. "Alright" he was hesitant, uncertain, but he went along anyway. "What's up? You're going to take some blood or-"

"Yeah" she nodded in an almost motherly fashion "but a little more than that. We will need to take some sample of skin and hair and... other stuff, so we will have to put you to sedate you for a while. Is that quite fine with you?"

"I don't like it" he grumbled as he climbed the metal slab table, lying down on it in an almost eager fashion. "Well, get on with it-attebayo" he told her. "I want to keep training, ya know?"

"I see" she nodded and beckoned the medical aides to her side from around the chamber, she herself moving up to him to roll up the sleeve of his orange jacket to expose the veins of his forearm. "Now, there will be a slight stinging sensation" she pushed the needle of the syringe deep into his forearm, injecting him with enough of the pale liquid to put down a horse.

"Naruto, we will need to take a lot of samples from you" she spoke to his drugged ears, his eyes unfocusing as a haze of sedation passed over them. "You might not wake up for a long time" _if at all_ , she added internally. "You must know that we need the Hyōton-affinity you possess to spread in the village if we are to remain safe. So we'll take a lot of blood and tissue samples. But don't worry, you will be safe in our hands".

"Am I helping in keeping the village safe?" Naruto wondered groggily, his eyelids fluttering towards the closing, and Tsunade looked like she wanted to sob as she stroked his cheek with a shaking hand.

"Yes, Naruto" she smiled down at him. "Yes you are".

" _Yokatta_ " he said finally, a small grin curling his lips breifly before his face became slack and impassive with the listlessness of unconsciousness.

And so Kakashi forced himself to watch as his student was... the only right word for it was _violated_.

Stripped of his clothes and warded over by the four greatest sealing master of Konoha outside of Jiraiya-sama himself the medics, all sworn to secrecy even to their master Danzō by the seals upon their tongues, began to go to work on him. His body was cut open all over, samples of tissue from all of his organs extracted with needles so large that they made Kakashi sick just seeing them, and much of his blood, spinal fluid, semen and glandular fluid were extracted by the help of modified dialysis machines. And they scanned him, took pictures of his organs and his skin, not an inch of him avoiding their scrutiny as they documented every minute detail of his physical state, his chakra examined with every tool they had for the matter: sensor types delving into it, Aburame bugs feasting on it, Inuzuka sniffing it, Yamato's special chakra flowers taking root in his flesh... it was almost impossible to watch.

It took hours. Hours upon hours, more than half a day even with all the attendants doing all they could to help Tsunade to speed up the process. Naruto might have been unconscious, but Kakashi could tell he was in great pain.

The Kyūbi almost broke free five times. And Naruto's heart stopped beating twice.

In the end Kakashi, after many gruelling hours spent at the boy's side, watching ceaselessly, making sure that the boy was resuscitated every time he went too close to death for comfort, had enough. To his shame he left the room, sinking to the dusty floor of the tunnel beyond with his head in his hands.

He had never helped the boy growing up. It had been better that way. When it came to keeping people alive, Kakashi had a... less than perfect record. He had kept his distance, watching the boy from afar as he suffered. He had wanted to help him, wanted to reach out and soothe his hidden nightly tears, but he didn't. Naruto needed to grow strong, needed to grow up strong. Tough love bred tough warriors, didn't it? And he thought it had given results.

At least he fucking hoped so; otherwise all that pain and loneliness would have been for nothing.

He thought about what sensei would have said if he knew this was happening, if he knew what his son was being put through. Would he have understood? Would he have raged? He had been Hokage, but would he have been able to put the life of his son above the welfare of the village?

Kakashi might never have admitted it to anyone, but he had always been living in the shadow of his master. Sensei was a genius, a prodigy since birth, but had never let his power make him arrogant or vain and always remained the perfect idea of civility and kindness towards all. A model student, a hero in the making... and then eventually a hero. He had died in the prime of his power in a selfless act that saved the lives of thousands, and left behind a legacy that towered over the village like his likeness carved into the Hokage mountain.

One did not live up to such a legacy. One could not, but Kakashi had tried.

But his life had been marred by failure seemingly at every turn. He had lost his closest friends under his own watch: first Obito, the boy he had secretly admired for his strength, and then Rin, the girl he had grown to love. And as he dedicated himself to his career to dull the pain of sorrow he never got a family, never let anyone get close. He had always cowled his face ever since the death of his father, and even before that he had always worn it up in public. As ANBU he had been efficient, ruthless, hard working and dedicated to his men, but had never grown to fame because of his own actions. They praised him for his Sharingan and his skill with Ninjutsu, but beyond those skills what was he?

He sure as hell wasn't a good teacher, that was for certain. His cute little gennin had only learned to hate each other under his tutelage. One had become a traitor. One had almost died to stop him. Only the last was becoming great, and that was of no fault of his own. All three of them gained their skills and their prowess at the hands of other teachers; Jiraiya, Tsunade... Orochimaru. All he had taught them was how to work together. And in that he hadn't succeeded in the least, at least in his mind. Sakura wasn't even his student anymore. She had much better teacher now and never asked for his help in training. Perhaps she had caught on to how much of a failure he was as a teacher?

He could almost hear the voices of the dead taunting him. Friend-slayer Kakashi. The keeper of the stolen eye. A lesser man standing in the shadow of a Shinobi God.

"Kakashi-senpai?" a voice jerked him out of his thoughts, and he looked up as he sensed Yamato's presence, and found himself looking up into the eyes of one of his oldest comrades.

"Tenzō" he replied. "How's-"

"He's alive" came the reply, and a feeling of relief washed over Kakashi so strongly that he almost felt like his muscles would melt. "Barely, but he's alive. And the procedure's complete. Hokage-sama is compiling the results as we speak".

If Kakashi had been a praying man he would have thanked the ancestors for this small mercy, but he wasn't, so he merely nodded and sprung to his feet, re-entering the chamber to see his student lying prone upon the metal slab, pale despite his tan and unmoving, one again clothed in his orange jumpsuit. The aides were huddled around papers and machines, washing instruments of cutting and dissection while Tsunade herself pulled off her now blood-stained plastic gloves with loud rubbery slapping noises, looking more tired than Kakashi had ever seen her before.

"He's going to make a full recovery" she said simply as Kakashi stormed into the room with a look towards the young man on the slab. "We've learned much today, and we've enough material for further study or... reproduction, should we need it. You can take him home".

"Wouldn't the hospital be-" Kakashi protested. Naruto looked so small, so frail, so very much different from his larger than life presence when awake.

"No. He needs familiar surroundings, and the company of friends" she replied curtly. "Get him home, Kakashi" she turned her back on him, and hesitantly he moved to pick him up, grimacing at how light he felt. He was probably just imagining it, but it was like they had sucked out everything inside him until nothing but a hollow shell - "And Kakashi" Tsunade interrupted that disturbing train of thought. "Don't say anything about this to Shisune, will you? She sees him as a little brother, and she can't make the hard choices".

"Wakatta, Tsunade-sama" Kakashi nodded sharply and took the last disciple he had left out of that horrid place.

He took him home, carrying him swiftly through sunlit streets, and finally put him in his bed, tucking him in under heavy blankets and removing his outer clothing. Already the cuts and incisions from the procedure were healing, scabbing over and scarring and soon to disappear completely. But his sleep was quiet, still, his breathing even and a peaceful look on his face. It was very much unlike Naruto's usual wild thrashing, sleep-talking, drooling and snoring, and so Kakashi still worried. He resolved to stay by his side until Naruto woke up to make sure he was safe, so he pulled up a chair next to his bed and sat down to read a little in the newest Icha Icha.

Still, focusing on the words upon the pages was harder than it should have been, and he found himself pondering.

Tsunade was a good woman. She was a great leader, despite having had the role of Hokage thrust upon her and despite having difficulties in shouldering the burden of command. And she had shown to him that she put the village above her own feelings and convictions, even if it hurt her. She was ashamed, too – Kakashi could tell. She didn't want her closest confident and conscience to know about the examination she had done.

She wasn't like Danzō despite what she had done to Naruto. Danzō wouldn't have held the slightest hesitation about doing "what needs to be done", and definitely wouldn't have felt the slightest bit bad or ashamed after doing so.

Still, it was difficult in not feeling a bit angry at her as he watched Naruto lay sleeping, unmoving, pale and wan despite the fire that burned within him. He looked so frail, Kakashi couldn't help but think, like that child he had never been allowed to really be.

All the mistakes Kakashi had made, of all the failures he had suffered... He would not let Naruto be one of them. That boy had the potential to live up to his father's legacy, the potential to even surpass it. He would not fail with Naruto. Whenever he needed training, whenever he needed help, he would be by the lad's side. He would not fail with him. He would not let his sensei down.

"If they try to hurt you" he said to the quietly sleeping lad "if any of them hurt you, I will kill them. You're the only thing in the worldI have any right to be proud of, and I'd rather die then let them destroy you".

Naruto woke when the day had turned into evening, as intrepid and jovial as always, his growling stomach demanding food. Kakashi subsequently took the two of them to Ramen Ichiraku and happily scammed the lad out of a free meal, just like he usually did. He didn't want Naruto to think he had grown soft on him, did he?

While they ate Naruto asked if Kakashi would help him train tomorrow.

Kakashi immediately answered yes.

* * *

 **A/N:** … and scene!

Not very much happening in this chapter... except foreshado- I mean nothing, nothing at all. Just some character moments, and not any action in the slightest. That comes later... Heh heh.

Anyone else got the song _March of the Varangian Guard_ by Turisas stuck in their head on constant repeat? I kinda have, and it's awesome :-)

Kakashi isn't bad. He's one of the most powerful Shinobi in existence, and he's a standup guy and a great teacher. But the internal monolouging he does is from his own perspective, and to me it always made sense for Kakashi to be haunted by the wrong turns his life has taken. Absent from his thoughts is, of course, his father's suicide, which is an important detail.

Some memories are just to painful to even think about, yes?

On a slightly more happy note; Asuma playing the guitar always made sense to me. Sort of rounds out the tough-guy stereotype with the spiky hair, smoking in a world of non-smokers, rebelling against his disapproving da and leaving home to join the army. I'm just saying that it fits the stereotype. Asuma is awesome, and Hinata had to learn to play from somewhere, right?

Also, I can't recall Yamato and Asuma interacting at all in the series, but they must've, right? At some point they must have talked or whatever. I mean, there can only be so many people in a village before it becomes a city, so most of the Shinobi there I presume to know each other.

Also, hidden city just sounds like some sort of Atlantis-expy. Which would be AWESOME.

Can you spot the Avatar reference in this chapter? I've you can, then you should get yourself a cookie :-)

Anyway, until next time; Please read and review, and DFTBA!


	3. Laws and Lovers

Well, butter my britches, I think it is time for another chapter of the White Fox. A shorter one this time, since I uploaded the last earlier today, but in return you'll get another one tomorrow or the day after that will be considerably longer.

I was originally thinking about making this a part of the next chapter, Training towards the Stars, but I thought better of it. In the end I only have time for a shorter chapter today as I've got stuff to do (I've got a real life, you know ;-P). So until tomorrow, much on this little piece of bitter marshmallow fluff.

So without further ado: Onwards, and cry Buggernutts for Hinata, Kakashi, and Saint Naruto!

… Come on, I've got to indulge my love of classical literature, okay?

* * *

Chapter 3: Laws and Lovers

* * *

It was several days later that Kakashi was summoned to the Hokage's presence again.

In a way he dreaded it, looking at her again and seeing what she had in store for his prize student, but as he was called into her office he found himself standing beside several other Shinobi; Yohi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, Umino Iruka, Fūma Ebisu the renowned pedagogue and personal teacher of Sarutobi Konohamaru, a large, warty and disturbingly pink-hued frog which he recognized as a messenger toad kept by Jiraiya-sama, and Maito Gai, who needed no further introduction.

"Welcome, my eternal rival-!" Gai began to declare in a theatrical manner as soon as Kakashi entered the room, but a dull thud silenced him.

"Shut your gob, you leotard-wearing ponce" Tsunade had slammed her sake cup into the table most forcefully, her face wan as she rubbed cheeks made gaunt by a lack of sleep. "I've neither the will or the patience to endure your posturing right now. Kakashi" her eyes flashed dangerously upwards "You're late!"

"Please excuse me, everyone" Kakashi apologised a little sheepishly. "I got lost on the road to enlightenment and could not find my way back until Amida Buddha showed me-"

"That goes for you too, Hatake" she growled and gave a meaningful look towards Gai before she straightened in her seat. "Shizune! Get your scrawny arse in here!"

"Of course, Tsunade-sama!" the younger woman hurried into the room, the last one to enter, and locked the office doors behind her before activating a sort of noise-cancelling Jutsu based on sound manipulation meant to dissuade those who would try to listen in. Kurenai frowned at that, as did Kakashi and Iruka, while Gai took it all in stride and Asuma personally didn't give a shit. "We have engaged privacy mode" she confirmed to her master.

"You don't have to sound like a robot, honey" Tsunade rubbed her eyes while her aide and long-time student blushed at the familiar term of address, causing Ebisu to give an awkward cough. "All of you no doubt wonder why I have called you here. You are from nearly every social strata of this village, but despite that you share a common denominator: your apprentices or personal relationships bind you closely to Uzumaki Naruto".

"What has he done now, Tsunade-dono?" Ebisu absently polished his glasses.

"Did he pour Tabasco into you sake again, Hokage-chan?" Asuma wondered, and at the familiar honorific Kurenai shot him a hard look.

"He's not in trouble" Tsunade shook her head in the denial "at least, not yet. Kakashi-san, if you would stand beside me?" she pointed to the floor beside her seat and spoke in a tone that definitely did not imply a request of any sort, and the white-haired cyclops complied shortly without complaint. "Everything said from this point onwards is classified as an S-class secret, and is effectively classified. Revelation of this information to anyone without my express consent will result in severe disciplinary action, up to and including execution by decapitation".

Even Gai had nothing to say at that, even though he really wanted to profess his undying loyalty and dedication to the sanctity of their village in the most poetic of terms. He sensed that the mood was not appropriate for such a thing.

Ten-Ten and Neji had struggled to teach him about "social courtesy", and he was actually learning... a little.

"First you must know the background information regarding this information" Tsunade began. "After a long period of research, aided by newly acquired genetic material, we have made an amazing discovery: the genes of Namikaze Minato, our esteemed Yondaime Hokage, contained the potential for a Kekkei Genkai".

"Remarkable" Ebisu commented, and many of the others nodded.

"These genes that denoted this Kekkei Genkai, a Ninjutsu-type in case you are wondering, were recessive. It appears to have entered his family at some time in the distant past, more than a hundred years ago, and has not been present in any documented member of his family to date... that we know of as of yet. I have five of my best archivist scouring our Shinobi clan census as we speak, but they have found little trace of the Namikaze lineage. It seems my predecessor was quite keen on keeping his family history hidden".

"My sensei was very private about his personal life" Kakashi noted from aside with a nod. "And he would never speak of his family, though I can dimly recall that I heard about a brother of his at one point or another".

"Regardless, that is not the issue at hand" Tsunade went on as if she hadn't been interrupted. "Namikaze Minato is dead and buried, and these genes I speak of were buried deep in his blood. They were recessive to the extreme, meaning that they are about as likely to surface in a descendant of his family as a third eye is to a civilian without Shinobi lineage. Excessively recessive genes like these are unlikely to ever surface" she drifted of, taking another sip of sake and clearing her throat before she continued. "That is, unless they are epigenetically effected by some powerful outside trigger".

"Hokage-sama-" Kakashi looked to her, worried that she was going to reveal his last student's legacy to the world. Under the laws of the Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen revealing the secret of Naruto's lineage was tantamount to an act of treachery against the state.

"Unlike what most of you have previously heard, Namikaze's infant son did not die in the Kyūbi attack seventeen years ago" Tsunade spoke up, ignoring Kakashi pointedly. "Instead he used his son as a receptacle for the beast, sealing it away inside of him. Uzumaki Naruto was born Namikaze Naruto, the last known scion of the Namikaze and Uzumaki clans".

"No shit" Asuma shrugged.

"It's obvious" Kurenai noted. "They are very similar".

"Clear as day" Ebisu added, not surprised in the least.

"I always thought he was" Iruka smiled proudly. "I've always thought of Naruto as my best student".

"He looks very much like his father" Shizune blushed. She had been enamoured with the blonde Hokage as a child, her first true crush, and had been devastated when he died.

Even the messenger frog gave the Hokage an incredulous look. He had seen the previous Hokage many times when the man had been undergoing sage training at Myōbokuzan, and what little he had seen of the boy in question made the kinship apparent. Only one person in the room was actually surprised.

" _What_?!" Gai exclaimed, struggling to pick his chin off the floor. "How?! To think that that youthful boy hero of ours is a kinsman to our saviour?! What a twist of the cruellest of fates!"

Kakashi put his palm to his face with a grunt, internally cursing over the Green Beast's obliviousness. He truly wasn't the sharpest tool in the box, so to speak.

"And thus Naruto had the recessive potential for this Kekkei Genkai I speak of in his blood" Tsunade finally went on, a little annoyed at the interruptions. "The presence of the Kyūbi seems to have been the factor needed to jump-start this genome, so to speak. The seal on it is designed in such a way to constantly let a little of its chakra mix into Naruto's own, and it has effected his body down to a cellular level. The information gained in our examinations of him leads me to think that his eventual children are very likely to also possess this Kekkei Genkai in active form. Thus I am declaring him an asset of the state, and hereby afford him the highest protection we can afford".

"Isn't he already an asset of the state due to the Kyūbi?" Ebisu wondered shrewdly.

"No. My predecessor the Sandaime thought it best to let the boy grow up without the censuring, constant surveillance and protection afforded to him otherwise. But as things stands now, as much as it pains me, he must be kept under constant watch and guard. That is why I've brought you here. All of you have some connection to the boy, either being his teacher, friend or teacher of his friends. The lot of you are keep your training in close proximity to him, and encourage your students to be around him at all times. He will, of course, have an bodyguard of at least three members of the ANBU around him at all times, but some more overt protection is needed to dissuade our enemies from acting".

"Has the council been informed, Tsunade-sama?" Kurenai wondered.

"No" came the rapid reply. "And thus the reason for this being an S-class secret. If questioned by the council you are not to divulge what we are now discussing".

"Are you fearing dissent, Hokage-sama?" Gai wondered, enraged at the very notion of disobedience within the ranks of Konoha Shinobi. Say what you will about Gai, and many frequently did, but he was loyal to a fault and beyond.

"I do fear from the more orthodox and reactionary factions within the council, especially the conservative policies advocated by my two advisors" the Hokage grudgingly admitted, knowing she would have to trust these people or fail in this endevour. "But most of all I worry about Danzō. The Shimura clan has some of the most influential people in Konoha, on both the civilian and military sides. And he would not hesitate to work against me, that misogynistic old prick. However, it's not just a question of that: he's a known associate of Orochimaru before he left the village, and we all know Orochimaru's stance on Kekkei Genkai. In their hands Naruto would be reduced to nothing but a weapon, locked away to gather dust, while I know that he is the best chance we have against Akatsuki". She paused, reaching for her cup again to find it empty, and shot Shizune a pointed look. "And I would see him free and happy, and eventually see him become my successor".

"We all would" Iruka spoke with conviction, but no one refuted him, and even Asuma reluctantly agreed. The Sarutobi pariah would have liked to see Shikamaru become the leader of the village, but he had come to admit to himself that the Nara would never have the drive to seize on such a grand ambition. "Forgive me, Hokage-sama" the Umino asked slowly "but what is his Kekkei Genkai? And why have we seen no trace of it earlier in his life?"

"That" came the answer after Shizune filled up the Hokage's cup with genzhu sake "is something I can only speculate on. It seems that these genes that possess the Kekkei Genkai in Naruto – which expresses itself as a Hyōton nature release affinity, by the way, was activated sometime in his early teens".

"Naruto came in contact with a Hyōton user named Haku some almost four years ago" Kakashi confirmed. "That was also the first time he actively used the Beast's chakra".

"That might have served as a trigger to activate the Hyōton genome" Tsunade mused as she sipped her liquor. "But it seems his chakra as a whole has not integrated his affinity properly. Thus he no doubt has trouble using it, and without forcing himself to open up to that part of his heritage he will most likely always will".

"You are putting him through nature release training, Kakashi-kun" Asuma spoke up, looking to the Hatake as he remembered the conversation he had with Naruto three days ago. "Has he shown any sign of actually using the Hyōton affinity?"

"He seems to be able to tell that he can't use the affinity properly yet" Kakashi informed the entire room. That was why he had been late to the meeting: because he had been sitting and thinking about strategies to help Naruto realise his full potential. "So we've been working on separating his elemental chakra into Suiton and Fūton, its component parts. He's... doing very well. Using hundreds of Kage Bunshin speeds up the training immensely, and he takes to advanced Ninjutsu like a fish to water".

"Perhaps it is better that he does not delve too deeply into the Hyōton affinity for now" Tsunade rubbed her brow with a sigh. "If he draws to deeply of it his entire chakra will be morphed into it, and his control is bad as it is. If he draws in too much of the ice" she licked her lips and let the rest of the sentence go unspoken.

Gai, however, would not let an opportunity for poetic speech pass him by without a fight. And he saw a golden one just then.

"If he joins his chakra with the ice within" he spoke with the all the trepidation of fate "the gates of hell would open".

And a shiver went through the room. He had no idea how right he was.

* * *

Hinata was happily looking for her sensei and team leader Kurenai at the Hokage tower when she stumbled onto something she should not have known.

The meeting the Hokage had kept with the team leaders and Naruto's former teachers, as well as a messenger frog who would relay all the information to Jiraiya-sama the Super Pervert, had just ended, and most of them went their separate ways down the corridors of the Hokage tower.

Most of them, except for Kurenai and Sarutobi Asuma.

Hinata had been directed to the tower by a couple of helpful villagers and guards who had seen Kurenai pass by there, for though they had no missions that day she wanted to have a word with the older woman regarding training and increasing her chakra reserves. Some advice from her teacher would not be misplaced, would it? It was then she found herself walking down a corridor as she suddenly overheard the private conversation her sensei and Asuma had around a corner.

"Huh" she stopped dead when she heard Asuma's lowered voice, too focused on the woman with the red eyes to notice the sudden Hyūga chakra in his vicinity. If Hinata had a bad habit it was the fact that her curiosity often got the better of her, and so she had a tendency to listen in on people, and peep into things she should not have rightly been allowed to know. Of course, being quite clever, perceptive and possessed of the Byakugan didn't exactly make things better.

"Is that all you have to say?" Kurenai replied as Hinata settled in to eavesdrop. "'Huh'?"

"I didn't expect that of Kakashi's student" Asuma replied slowly whilst idly scratching his bearded jaw. "But he's the one you never see things coming from, right? Whenever you think you know where you've got him, then – bam! - he pulls a super Jutsu out of nowhere and proceeds to skull-fuck his way to victory".

"He is quite impressive" Kurenai admitted slowly, almost hesitantly. "I wouldn't trade my own students for anything in the world, but it would be interesting to teach him sometime. I guess we will have a chance to do so now".

"No shit" Asuma pulled up a cigarette from a breast pocket. "You don't mind if I-"

"We're indoors, Asuma" she replied, and Hinata blushed at the warm and familiar way her teacher spoke his name. "And you probably shouldn't do that around me anymore".

"Is that why you wanted to speak with me?" wondered as his mood seemed to darken and his motions stiffened. "To tell me that this thing we've got going... whatever the hell it is... is over?"

"Asuma, I-" Kurenai sighed and put her hand to her face, a tremble in her voice, looking lost and uncertain. She felt like a girl again, just like she had after her mother died, all alone without knowing what to do or what to say. She and Asuma, what were they? Just comrades enjoying a shag every now and then? But their pillow talk was often so warm, so fond, and despite how he reeked of tobacco he was great to cuddle with. He was reliable, funny, and best of all he was kind and good with children, and they had many common interests and shared many of the same views about life and the world. But if she sprung this on him, how would he react? Were they in it for the long haul, as it were? "I don't know how to say this-"

"If you're breaking up with me, just say so" he replied with a frown, disguising the hurt he felt within. "Out with it. If we're over, I want to hear you say it".

"I'm pregnant" she replied in a whisper, and Asuma stopped.

He just stopped.

Stopped moving, stopped thinking, stopped even knowing what the hell was going on. "And it's yours" Kurenai went on, as if she had needed to. He had known they were exclusive, had been so for almost neigh on a year now, and he trusted her. He had always trusted her. "I'm keeping it" she then added, looking at his vacant expression and his dulled eyes with increasing annoyance. He wasn't reacting, he wasn't moving. He was just standing there like a statue of a ponce with an unlit cigarette in his hand and a paleness creeping into his cheeks. "Say something, Asuma" she begged of him.

He heard her, and so he said the only thing he could think of. "Well, shit".

"If that's how you feel" she felt something shatter in her chest as she hissed that, fury burning in her eyes. Was that all he could say? Was that all she was to him, what they had was to him? "Piss off, you arse" she growled in a great approximation of her student Kiba and made to move past him.

But a hand gripping her by the wrist stopped her from leaving. She looked back and up to suddenly find herself staring into his darkly brown eyes, his look soulful and brimming over with too many emotions for words. The cigarette he had intended to light had fallen to the floor, forgotten by the both of them.

"I'm giving up smoking" he said firmly, and she looked at him in silent question. "I'm giving up smoking" he repeated again, as if he couldn't quite believe what he himself was saying "because I want to be the best damn dad our kid could possibly ever have. I will take responsibility" he sounded more and more decided as he went on, his words knitting her broken heart back together. "I will be there for you, for both of you. If you want me, I would spend the days I have left with the two of you". Finally, he spoke the words he had never thought he would ever say. "Please, be my wife".

"Asuma" she gasped, his fingers trembling, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. "Why-?"

He pulled her close to him, curling one arm around her as his free hand angled her chin up towards his. "Because life's too damn short for staying away from the one you love" he replied simply and bent his head down to kiss her.

Her lips were soft, tender, moist, and felt like heaven as he pressed her into him. She stiffened first, not expecting it, before she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him harder towards her, deepening the kiss they shared. Slowly his hand went down from her chin and tenderly made it's way over her body, for once ignoring her, in his mind, perfect breasts to instead land upon her lower stomach. So his child was in there, huh?

Even in the kiss he grinned the dumbest and broadest smile he had ever made.

Suddenly their romancing was interrupted by a mouse-like squeak from around the corner, and they shot apart, reflexively smoothing their clothes and Kurenai straightening her skirt, their senses suddenly suddenly perked up and alert. Asuma almost reached for his trench knives before he heard a pair of feet running away into the distance and felt a familiar chakra. "Hinata" he said dumbly, a blush spreading over his cheeks.

"She must have known from the start" Kurenai narrowed her eyes dangerously as the thought occurred to her. "Damn it, I'm going to kill that girl!"

"Nah, you won't" he said, and she looked to him to find him grinning like a fool on a sunny day. "You love her too much".

"What's up with you?" she wondered with a cocked eyebrow, and his smile made the impossible as it grew even wider.

"I'm going to be a daddy" he nearly giggled, and she rolled her eyes in response to his antics before she allowed her smile to mirror his own. "Come here, you" he opened his arms to her, and she nearly fell into his embrace.

With him, held by him, she couldn't give a damn about Shinobi or Kekkei Genkai or state secrets. With him she was building her own future. Them against the world.

He, she, and the child growing inside her. A family.

Together.

* * *

… And Curtains!

 **A/N:** As I said, a shorter chapter this time – more of a chapterette, really – to wet the appetite for the next chapter. Just some humour, exposition, drama and fluff... and some things that will be really bloody important later on.

I was going to upload the last chapter about nine hours earlier than I did, but a thunderstorm rolled in and the authorities of this backwards cesspit of a country shut down the region's broadband. Argh, how galling!

No Naruto this time, but plenty of talk about him. Him, and his training, will feature prominently in the next chapter, in a addition to some Hinata and Naruto fluff and some actual action at last. As to his Kekkei Genkai and it's origin and mechanics - take Tsunade's and Kakashi's explanations for what they are: guesswork vaguely based in fact. There will be others with other explanations, and its origins will be shrouded in mystery. I've no intention to change that.

Now, a question: would all of you like more frequent chapter that are a bit on the shorter side, or shall I take my time and deliver longer chapters once a week? It's up to you, because I could go either way, working and studying from home as I do.

Well, until next time, cheerio! Read and review, and DFTBA!


	4. Training towards the Stars

**A/N:** Finally! Another chapter of the White Fox is out, and this one took ages to finish! Ages!

Fours days I spent writing this, four days! I know I only had time to write, like, an hour a day at most, but still, come on!

Anyway, so here's the next chapter. The theme song this time is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' _I won't back down_... for the sole reason that I can't think of a better song just now.

Well, then, I think I've said enough! Onto the chapter!

* * *

Chapter 4: Training towards the Stars

* * *

No one saw Hinata for the rest of the day after she had caught her teacher and her teacher's lover at a very intimate moment, even though they looked for her. Her family didn't worry though, as the first thing she did when she came home to the compound was to hastily scribble a note on the back of a photo taken by Hanabi and attached to her door – a black and white still depicting Neji laying upside down in a pond with fishes swimming up his nose – explaining that she would be out until sundown. She then grabbed a towel and the guitar Asuma had lent her on a near-permanent basis and went to her thinking place.

In the training grounds in the woods just east of Konoha she had found, as a girl sneaking after a boy that would train all the time at the oddest places, a sheltered grove behind a rocky outcropping in which a cold underwater river sprang forth to form a shallow crystal-clear pool. The sun seemed to always shine there, even in the winter, and upon a rock that stood jagged some ways from that small body of water she would sit and... sort stuff out.

Naruto used to come here, she thought as she dumped the towel on the ground and sat with the guitar upon that rock, cradling it like she would have a treasured child. In the days when she no longer had time to follow him, had time to see him, had time to agonise over what to say to him should he speak to her, she had come to this place and trained, trained until she had mastered every single form her family could teach her. But always it seemed a bit odd to her, practising violence in such a quiet and peaceful place disturbed only by the singing of birds and the still clucking of water. So she had recently begun going there to think, to meditate, and to play her music.

Absently her fingers began strumming away to the tune of "Nothing else Matters", even as her mind seemed to race. Systematically she worked her way through the jumbled mess that was her emotional state.

It wasn't that she had been taken aback by her normally so warm yet slightly reserved teacher showing such intent affection and vulnerability... well, maybe just a little bit. Hinata had grown up sheltered by the clan around her, and she was... unused to physical affection. Still, it wasn't as much the kissing that had bothered here – rather, it was what Asuma had said before that bothered her.

 _Life's too damn short for staying away from the one you love_ , he had said. Those words, they had cut her.

Deeply.

She had always watched Naruto from a distance, chasing after him in silence, holding him up as an example to strive towards, an icon upon a pedestal to admire. But she was always in the shadow of that looming pedestal, a second-rater in the presence of those greater than her. Always, when she had been about to act, when she had driven herself to the point of being brave enough to tell him how she felt about him, she had been struck by that thought:

She wasn't worthy. He was the sun to her, and she was nothing but a pale-eyed failure of a girl.

All that had changed half a week ago, when she had done the impossible and bested Neji, the man once considered to be the Taijutsu champion of Konoha, a true prodigy. Already the word was spreading – the girl Hiashi had bypassed in the line of succession as if she was unworthy had beaten the genius. She had beaten Neji.

The only one to have ever done so before was Naruto himself. And then, as her thoughts wandered, she couldn't help but to think of her situation as it was now.

She was good. There was no doubt about it, despite her humility in all things. She was one of the best now.

Was she worthy of him?

She thought so.

So what was holding her back?

She was scared, she discovered as she played. She was scared of him rejecting her, because she knew from watching him, stalking so intently despite knowing it was creepy and wrong, that he didn't love her back. He hardly knew her, after all, so how could he love her?

How could she make him care about her?

The answer was deceptively easy: approach him. Talk to him. Move her lips around and make words come out of. But she was insecure in her speech, afraid that her stutter would ruin things for her.

When did she not stutter?

When she was fighting, training, focusing on becoming better. Her body always had an easier time speaking than her lips. So she would ask to train with him, she would spar with him, and they would ease the tension in that way. And undoubtedly he'd crack some joke or say some jest that would make her laugh, and things would be better then. Easier.

She was one of the greatest now, and at last she felt worthy of him. Nothing would hold her back.

Life is too damn short for staying away from the one you love. She loved him, and she would grow strong beside him from now on. Strong enough to protect her village and her family from those who would seek to destroy it.

"And nothing else matters" she strummed the last chord and let the sound ring out, letting it fade into the silence of that beautiful day.

Tomorrow was a new day.

A better day, one that would be the simply the first of many.

She was sure of it.

* * *

The very next day was the day when things began to change around Konoha.

Tsunade, as Hokage, began to distance herself from the rest of the village, and delegated many of her usual responsibilities to her subordinates. Nara Shikaku, Shikamaru's father, became the defacto strategic head of Konoha despite his protests, working out of an office of the bottom floor of the Hokage tower where his duty became to assess, hand out and evaluate missions. The political responsibilities of the station fell onto Akimichi Chouza and Shimura Shizune both, the two taking turns attending the gatherings of the Konoha Shinobi council and the civilian assembly in Tsunade's stead. Special projects, commonly under her supervision too, were handed out to individual leaders who would act as the chief operators of her intrests.

And luckily enough for Naruto, Project "Hyōton" came under the jurisdiction of one Hatake Kakashi. He was given leave to request as many resources as he needed in the project, within reason of course, and full executive power to take whatever his actions he saw fit in pursuing the end goal of the project.

His objective was thus: Keep the Asset of State, codenamed "Arctic Fox", safe from outside threats by any means necessary, and make sure that the Asset gains full control over his Kekkei Genkai as soon as possible.

Kakashi had found himself scowling when he was handed the project binder and saw the objective summery for the first time. "Any means necessary"... That was phrasing you saw in the mission statements for suicide runs or ANBU terror strikes and assassinations targeting civilians. What the hell was Tsunade thinking? Was she slipping up, growing unfit for her role?

Or, as his growing suspicion niggled at him, had she been unfit since the very beginning?

Tsunade, in the meanwhile, locked herself away in her office with several stacks of dark folders containing research the Sandaime thought he had eradicated from the surface of the world without leaving a single shred of their existence; excepting, of course, his runaway traitor of a student. Only Shizune and the few aides she would have fetch documents from the library were allowed in her presence, and Konoha soon began to feel the weight provided by absentee leadership.

Things could not go on like this. In the end it would have to come to a head.

Kakashi, on the other hand, reveled in the sudden freedom from authority. He seized that opportunity with all his might and set about making sure that his student would never find himself onto a scientist's dissection slab again.

And as to his Kekkei Genkai...

If the data provided to him was right then Naruto, or codename "Arctic Fox" as his dossier referred to him as, would be better of not grasping his Kekkei Genkai's full power for now. Using his Hyōton affinity would be akin to struggling up a steep ramp only to find it ending with a thousand foot drop: he would have to struggle to grasp even a little of it, but once he did then the gates would open and his entire chakra would be subsumed and coloured by the Ice locked away within. All it would take would be a push, and the warm chakra the blonde bomb of a buster constantly radiated would turn freezing cold, and he would most likely not have any control over it at all.

So Kakashi decided instead to focus on the two component chakras of the Hyōton: Suiton and Fūton, in the training, as well as working on the boy's chakra control. And as soon as he decided that, the perfect form of training for Naruto came to mind. At once he smiled beneath his mask and went to find Shikaku.

And so it was that he had Gai, Asuma and Kurenai gather in his in his flat on the eastern side of Konoha, sitting around the coffee table in his living room with papers he had drawn up in their hands, Kurenai and Asuma sharing the lawson-style sofa whilst Kakashi and Gai slouched down in his armchairs.

"This is a lot of work, Kakashi!" Gai commented as he eyed through the mission drafts Kakashi had drawn up for them just an hour earlier. "Aren't you commonly disinclined towards doing this sort of thing?"

"Hm?" was the reply Kakashi gave to that question, as he was busy thinking about ideal sparring partners and group divisions. "What's that?"

"You're not usually this industrious, Kakashi-kun" Kurenai commented from aside Asuma, the two sitting a little closer than the had used to sit. Kakashi wondered if something had happened in between them, and figured that if so it was a long time in the making.

"You're a lazy bum, mate" Asuma, as was his wont, spoke frankly and without restraint when it came to missions and questions, his military experience as the Daimyo's bodyguard having thought him to be concise. "What's changed about you?"

"I've had a change in priorities" was all he answered before he looked up from his papers and decided that it was time to get about business. "First of all: I need your help. Rather" he stopped and corrected himself "I need the help of your students. All of them".

"What for?" Kurenai frowned. "Aren't they supposed to be Naruto-kun's bodyguards already when not out on missions? We can only take so much time out of-"

"I've already cleared it with strategic commander Nara" Kakashi interrupted, wanting to get to the point. "Your teams has had their time on the mission roster cut in half, and their priority in the mission selection process set down to C". B-priority meant that you were as likely as anyone else to be selected for a mission that didn't demand special skills, while A-priority meant that you were chosen specifically for the mission and D meant that you were taken off the roster entirely. "Your students will spend the time they have left over training with Naruto. That way you can at least gain something out of being his bodyguards"-

"Will we get paid?" Kurenai asked, and Kakashi gave her a look, wondering as of why she was suddenly concerned about money when she before rarely had – Ah, so that was why she was sitting so close to Asuma. Good for them.

"Don't worry – you will be given pay from out of the treasury as recompense for missing out on missions. And a fairly substantial wad of dosh it is. You'll be able to put the kid through the best schools in the country if you stuff it in a mattress instead of spending it".

"You are with child?!" Gai exclaimed in question, his fuzzy eyebrows climbing high on his face to almost seem as if they wanted to hide in his hair. "Congratulations! Who is the father?!"

"Who do you think, dickhead?" Asuma grumbled, but when Gai turned a radiant grin towards him be began to smile like a child that had just received a favourite present.

"I'm just eleven weeks along" Kurenai lay a hand upon her midriff as she beamed at them "so you can't really tell yet. And we hadn't planned on telling people just yet" she shot Kakashi a look. "But it seems you can't hide anything from Sharingan Kakashi".

"You'd be surprised" he muttered and thought about the darkness in Sasuke's heart that he had not seen festering until it was far too late, leading to his good mood being promptly ruined. "Anyway, sorry to cut the well wishes short, but we're kind of on a schedule here. So if you don't mind...?"

"Go ahead" Kurenai's smile became an amused smirk "Kakashi-taicho".

"My codename in the ANBU was Inu" he muttered "in case you were wondering. Anyway, I have an idea for training Naruto to master advanced Ninjutsu, which will most likely result in a S-level Jutsu if his trackrecord is to go by. This training will be good for your students too" he pressed.

"How so?" Gai wondered with a frown. "None of my cute students are Ninjutsu-type Shinobi, and Shino-kun would have trouble with channelling elemental Ninjutsu without harming his bugs".

"Actually, I have some theories about that" Kakashi questioned the assumptions of his supposed rival "and we won't just be training Ninjutsu. A rhetorical question: how does Naruto learn anything?"

"He learns through doing" Asuma shrugged. "I knew a guy like him in the Guardian Twelve. Shiinki was his name – dumb as a bucket of hammers when you put a pen in his hand, but absorbed information while in combat like a sponge does water".

"He's a tactile learner? A kinesthetic approach, then?" Kurenai questioned.

"Precisely" Kakashi nodded. "He learns by doing, and thrives under pressure. So this is what I have in mind: he keeps making hundreds of shadow clones, just like we have been doing, but have some of them fight your students, applying what he has learnt. Sparring with Naruto will aide their skills too, especially if you want me to introduce them to advanced Ninjutsu".

"There's no doubting that you're the foremost Ninjutsu expert in Konoha, my eternal rival" Gai said a little sharply "but a Jutsu can fail. A fist or a blade shall never betray you".

"I'm not talking about changing your students' entire fighting styles" came the assurance in reply. "Just adding a little diversity to their repertoires. A couple of tricks up their sleeves that one day save their lives, you know?"

"And aside applying what he's already learnt, how will this help Naruto?" Kurenai questioned again.

"Simple: he'll make too many clones for him to relying on his clones in fighting. He'll be forced to rely in Taijutsu, in which he's only above average without his clones, and Ninjutsu – especially the Rasengan. And if he can't use clones in making the Rasengan" he drifted off and let the suddenly smiling Gai to finish.

"If he learns how to make the Rasengan with only one hand, his chakra control will subsequently be immense!"

"Right on. Only when he's at a very high level of chakra control am I willing to let him take the plunge and start exploring his Kekkei Genkai" Kakashi concluded. "We have no idea how his Kekkei Genkai will act once fully manifested, and I want him to be prepared".

"What do we tell our students about this?" Asuma wondered. "The brats ought to have questions, just saying".

"The truth". This was the striking point where Kakashi differed from many Shinobi, but he didn't believe in keeping secrets from his comrades unless he absolutely had to. The only reason he had kept Naruto's father's identity from him was because the Sandaime, a man he respected and trusted immensely, had asked him not to. "It's better that than them stumbling over the wrong conclusions or make them suspicious from all the secrecy. And if we can't trust the future generation" he found himself thinking back on Tsunade's frantic words from a few days ago, her choice words as to the characters of the Konoha 11 "we might as well give up already".

"True" Gai nodded. "Though I hate to go against Hokage-sama... you are in charge of this mission, Kakashi. You do what you think is best".

"No" Kakashi shook his head. "I'll do what is right, and nothing less than that". He would do right by his student, even if it cost him his head. "I'll deal with any repercussions personally, as you act under my orders. We'll get started tomorrow, at dawn, at training ground 4. I've reserved it indefinitely until the project has run its course".

"Right on" Asuma nodded, his fingers twitching just a hint as his nicotine addiction was making itself known again. "You wouldn't have anything to drink around here, would you?"

"I could go for a pint myself" Gai agreed heartily, and Kakashi stood with a shrug, most of what he had wanted to say already said, heading towards his kitchen and his liquor cabinet.

"Just water for me, thank you!" Kurenai called, and Asuma promptly began grinning like an idiot again.

"So" Gai asked her as Kakashi returned with a bottle of Sake and four glasses, one filled with water "when are you due?"

And for a little while, as they talked like friends, the troubles of the days ahead were forgotten.

* * *

It seemed like there was no uniform pattern to how the Konoha 11 – and Sai – took the news about Naruto possessing a Kekkei Genkai, Kakashi noted with slight amusement.

"I see" Shino said simply, his tone as level and emotionless as always. "Interesting". All eleven of them had been gathered on the edge of training ground 4, a large open and once idyllic field that had now been marred by a long trench and many trees shorn completely of leaves. As a group they were facing Kakashi, who had just finished explaining the situation to them, and their respective team-leaders and jounin sensei.

"Well, that's a wrench in the works, isn't it?" Shikamaru grumbled and rubbed his furrowed brow in annoyance. "Troublesome". Naruto, of course, wasn't with them. He was down in the far trench working on making the walls of it wet with nothing but his chakra alongside about a hundred clones, and had been so since long before the others had shown up. He probably didn't even know they were there.

"How's that, Shikamaru?" Chouji questioned with a frown. "I think it's bloody awesome!" Kakashi had only told them about the fact that Naruto possessed a previously unknown Kekkei Genkai, and neglected to tell them about it's origins in his father's genes or the fact that the Kyūbi had awoken it. Still, several of his peers thought it was amazing, among them Chouji and Lee, who was dancing with joy at the prospect of sparring with a super powered Naruto.

"It's an unknown variable" the Nara sighed in reply, rolling his eyes. "Without data to compare it to it will remain unknown. And I hate unknowns" he muttered. "They just muck up my plans. Too troublesome".

"Are you really sure about this, sensei?" Sakura questioned from beside Ino. "I mean, I've known him for years. Even if this Hyōton affinity has been dormant, as you say, shouldn't we have noticed it by now?"

"Sakura, I don't have all the answers" Kakashi shrugged. "And I can't say that most of what I can answer won't be based on guesswork and information gained in a... questionable way".

"How did you find all this out?" Hinata suddenly spoke up from the back of the group, despite her slight social anxiety and tiny voice clearly heard by all of them. "Have Hokage-sama made some sort of examination of Naruto-kun? Studied his Kekkei Genkai?" For once, they all noted, there wasn't even a trace of a stutter in her voice

"I'd rather not say" Kakashi confirmed darkly. "Some of it's secret by very old laws, and the rest... Suffice to say he was taken apart and put back together in order for us to find out what caused all of this". They thought that he was speaking figuratively. He'd rather wait with telling them about it so that Sakura and Ino's perceptions of their master wasn't shattered altogether... or until he had proof to show them. "I'll tell you about it some other time, but for now... any other questions? Things you need to get off your chests?" He looked to Kiba, as he knew that Inuzuka shinobi were prone to hold grudges, and Kiba had once considered Naruto a rival, and according Kurenai he still did.

"Nope" Kiba shook his head, and so did Akamaru beside him, a quite amusing thing for a dog the size of a horse to do. "Finding this out... he's top dog now, and there ain't a thing I can do about it. Just gotta settle into the beta role, I guess".

"Huh" was all that Kakashi could answer. Well, that showed him what happened when he made assumptions about these kids. "Anyway, this is what we'll do. Lee, Ten-Ten and Neji – you are all unsuited for advanced Ninjutsu for one reason or another. I want you three to spar with Naruto at all times. Keep him on his toes, pressure him, goad him into using what I've taught him over the last few days".

"Yosh!" Lee cried to the beaming approval of his master, to which his team mates rolled their eyes and sighed.

"The rest of you" Kakashi looked to the rest of them, and to the Ino-Shika-Chou combo that was team 10 in particular. "I'll start with the basics of nature transformation with you. Akimichi, Aburame, Inuzuka, Sai – your clan techniques are based in Yōton, the manipulation of Yang chakra. Nara, Yamanaka – yours are the same but for Inton, the manipulation of Yin chakra. Yang governs the physical and allows the physical aspects of your abilities. Yin is the manifestation of your thoughts and is used, primarily, for Genjutsu. Sakura-chan, Hinata-san... neither of you have little more than basic Ninjutsu training. In return your skills when it comes to manipulating your chakra in its pure form are nearly non-existent, which means you have no habits to hinder your progress like the others".

"You're not getting any details about our clans secrets, Kakashi-sensei" Kiba narrowed his eyes that the jounin, a hint of a snarl in his voice.

"I wasn't asking for them, Kiba-kun" came the disinterested answer. "Now, first thing's first: I need to know your nature release affinities. So if each of you would please take a single note of chakra sensitive paper, which Gai will be handing out" he made a gesture to the verdant beast of Konoha, who smilingly gave each of the youths a square of white paper about the size of their palms, only to find that his sole female student, Ten-Ten, was holding out her hand at him in an almost pointing way.

"What, sensei?" she put her other hand on her hip. "You think I would settle for playing second fiddle to Broody and Bombastic forever?". She was, of course, referring to her two team mates Neji and Lee, who at that moment tried not to get in the way and had moved to stand alongside Kurenai and Asuma to the side.

After they were done, Kakashi had all of them channel chakra through the papers and divide themselves up according to the results. As expected of children born in Hi no Kuni the largest group by far was the one made up of those with a Katon affinity, the fire release; Hinata, Shikamaru, Kiba and Ino all possesed that type of nature release. The second largest group was the pair of Sai and Aburame Shino, both of whom had an affinity for Dōton, the earth release. The remaining three each stood on their own, as Sakura had a Suiton affinity, Ten-Ten had a Fūton affinity, and only Chouji stood as Kakashi's brother in chakra with his Raiton affinity.

Still, Kakashi thought they were lucky. Every single type of nature release affinity could be found in the group, which was a nearly unprecedented kind of diversity. Very useful, especially if they excelled so far as to start working on cooperative Ninjutsu. But he put aside those thoughts for now, as they still had yet to learn the basics, and so he urged them to follow him towards the long trench on the far side of the training grounds.

In the trench, ten feet deep and just as wide, stood double rows of identical copies of Naruto facing both walls of the trench, the hundreds of them having taken identical poses: feet apart and braced against the ground while their hands were pressed into the earthen wall of the trench. To a one all of them were panting, dirtied, the legs of their orange trousers stained with mud, and not a one of them wore anything on the upper half of their bodies.

A fact that caused Hinata to blush furiously when she, along with the rest of the Konoha eleven – and Sai – leant in over the side of the trench. Although, there was something different about him. She couldn't quite-

Kakashi cleared his throat, and several of the clones jumped while most just jerked or flinched and snapped their eyes up to meet the sensei's monocular gaze. Some of them reflexively even found what they had been struggling with for hours, forcing a sudden push of chakra out from their palms to burrow deep into the earthen wall.

And of course, given her luck, Hinata was standing just above a clone that did just that. The result was, of course, that the earth beneath her feet began to slip into mud, burying the hapless clone who had been standing there in a wave of slimy soil. And Hinata found herself sliding down into the ditch with nothing to stop her fall.

 _Shoot_ , she had only time to think as the bottom of the trench rose up to meet her. _I just washed my hair._

But she never struck the ground or soiled her clothes, for she was caught by strong and steady arms, the owner of those arms leaping high into the air and out of the trench and Naruto's clones all exploded out of existence. Letting out a distressed "Eep!" that Hinata knew was unworthy of a real Shinobi she clung to the one that had caught her. Idly she noted that he, for judging by the flatness of his chest and the hardness of his muscles it was a he, smelled musky, though not unpleasant, and that said muscular and broad chest was bare and smooth.

Oh no. She really hoped she hadn't... She looked up and saw a pair of bright blue eyes gazing back into hers. Her mouth went dry, her heart hammered wildly in her chest, and she felt her knees shiver and her cheeks heat to almost infernal levels of hotness, for even as she struggled not to faint she clung to him.

"You should be more careful, Hinata-chan" Naruto flashed her a grin, his cheeks streaked with mud, still holding onto her. "I tend to get a bit heavy on the environment-attebayo". Still he held onto her, his smile slowly fading and his looking growing more intense, and maybe she was imagining it but she thought she felt his arms curl around her ever so slightly. Suddenly the butterflies in her stomach grew to the size of Inuzuka mastiffs as he bent his head a hint to the side. The look in his eyes... he looked hungry – no, not hungry.

Suddenly she was as frightened as she was turned on.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun" she said, reaching out to pat his cheek, that pat turning into a simple holding of her hand over his whiskers as she inhaled deeply of his musky, manly scent. "Y-you can put me down now".

"Aye!" Naruto jerked back to reality, shook his head hard and hurriedly swung her around, almost dropping her before he put her feet firmly to the earth. "Sorry 'bout that, Hinata-chan". He blushed in an almost perfect impression of her on a bad day as he gave her an apologetic smile. "I didn't want you to get your jacket dirty. You always wear it, so you must like it-attebayo".

"Thank you, Naruto-kun" she said again, bowing clumsily, to which he waved frantically in dismissal. She had resolved to actively pursue him from now on, and so she had to stay alert, stay concious, and not faint – no matter what she did.

"Ah, no biggie! It's what you do for your friends, right?" At that she would have felt a little crestfallen if she still hadn't felt the warmth of his chest and the strength of his arms as an acute memory still not yet faded. "So... what brings you to my-" and then he stopped talking, swayed on his feet, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he crashed towards the ground.

Hinata caught him at the same time as Kakashi did, together lowering him down to lay flat upon his back in the lush summer grass. She looked closely at him then, wondering what was wrong, and she saw... He was pale, his skin almost as white as hers, his tan still in his skin but all but gone as if he was short on blood in the extreme. Small pale marks were visible all over his skin; incisions left by scalpel and pinpricks left by syringes' needles almost completely faded. Rings were deep and dark beneath his eyes, and his whiskered cheeks seemed slack, gaunted, almost emancipated.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked Kakashi as Naruto's chest began to move easily as if he was sleeping deeply, and only when those words had passed her lips did she notice how accusative and confrontational she sounded. Faintly she was aware of the others gathering around them, but she had her gaze fixed on Kakashi, silently demanding and answer.

"He's overworking himself" Kakashi noted and stood, leaving his best student half-laying in Hinata's lap while he fetched Naruto's jacket from nearby to hand it to her. "He's been... the examination he underwent was very thorough. I have been trying to make him take it easy, give himself time to recover, but he's about as easy to hold back as a storm. He just won't quit" and mixed into the worry in his words was no small amount of pride.

"Of course he won't, Kakashi-sensei" Hinata unconsciously pulled his head further up into her lap to better support his neck before she draped his jacket over him like a blanket. "He's Uzumaki Naruto. He'll never give up. But that doesn't explain why he's got a fever" her hand upon his brow could certainly discern that "or why he's so pale".

"Let's just say the Hokage's examination involved a lot of knives and leave it at that" Kakashi's reply was a little testy as he looked to the others, finishing that particular conversation firmly. "This is the downside of this kind of training, excepting the fact that only Naruto has enough chakra and skill to use Kage Bunshin in this way. Once the clones are dispelled, he gains all their knowledge but also all their fatigue. This would no doubt exhaust a lesser man, but Naruto can be up and running around again within just a couple of hours".

"He's pretty awesome, isn't he?" Sakura slowly smiled, and several of the others nodded.

"At least Hinata thinks so" Kiba winked, and though the young woman in question blushed deeply with indignation she didn't lift the head crowned with blonde hair from her lap. Normally she wouldn't have been comfortable with this sort of touching, this sort of physical proximity, but he was obviously tired and in a deep sleep and... it was Naruto. She didn't think she could ever feel uncomfortable around Naruto. Nervous, anxious, frightened and uncertain, yes, but never uncomfortable.

"Well, as we find ourselves without much to do" Kakashi cleared his throat and turned the attention back to him "I'll go and have a quick word with your teachers, okay? This is recess of... uhm, ten minutes? Just stay where you are" he concluded before he dashed away to coordinate with the other Jounin sensei, leaving the youths to their own devices. Hinata, comfortable as she was, settled into an easy silence while the rest of the young women in the group sat down around her and the boys around them. And though Hinata was quiet slowly discussions began to arise among the people in the group.

"Wasn't Naruto-kun your sworn enemy before, Kiba-kun?" Chouji wondered at Kiba, who was absently scratching behind the ears of his massive canine companion. "What's all this 'top-dog' stuff you're on about?"

"He's got this ice-thingy now, doesn't he?" Kiba cocked an eyebrow in response. "That's a bloodline thing, and I can never be that strong. I'm not stupid, okay? I know when it's time to roll over and accept that you're never going to be the alpha of the pack. And besides, being the beta's not so bad. You get second pick of the females" he snickered while Ino silently mouthed the word "pervert" to Sakura.

"Kekkei Genkai" Ino said slowly to Sakura, Hinata and Ten-Ten, as if she couldn't quite believe it. "I never thought Naruto would have something like that. You think that's why he heals his injuries so quickly?"

"No, that's probably because of something else" Sakura dismissed, outwardly indifferent but inwardly nervous and hard-pressed. The others, of course, didn't know about the Kyūbi yet, and she didn't want to tell them. It was Naruto's secret to tell, after all, not hers.

"Still, Kekkei Genkai" Ino hummed. "It's kind of hot, don't you think?"

"Huh?" her pink-haired friend wondered what the hell she was on about. "'Hot'? Are you off your medication, or are you just taking the piss?"

"Powerful men are attractive, don't cha think, forehead?" Ino pressed and looked to Ten-Ten. "Back me up here, Ten-Ten-chan".

"He's not my type to begin with, so I can't say" she replied with an apathetic shrug. "But to each their own, I guess. But I'm not the kind of person likely to slobber over someone just because of a single quality. Unlike others" she looked back to Ino "I've got standards".

"Hey!" the blonde Yamanaka was obviously outraged. "What the hell?!"

"Oh, don't be like that" Ten-Ten dismissed with a wave. "It's all in good fun, ya know? Besides, don't you think the two of you are related?"

"What makes you think Ino-pig is related to Naruto-kun?" Sakura wondered, laying her head to the side and supporting her cheek with her hand. "I mean, they're both blonde and have bright eyes, but other than that-".

"Yeah, and how many blondes are there in Konoha?" Ten-Ten went on in her conspiracy theory. "Of the top of my head... Tsunade-sama and Yondaime-" she stopped as Hinata uttered a sound that was somewhere between a gasp of surprise and an "Aha!" of triumphant realisation. "What is it, Hinata-chan?"

"Don't you think he looks like Y-Yondaime-sama?" she asked the others, and the girls leant their heads to the side and leant in towards him, squinting as they examined him closer. Hinata had the sudden urge to smack them for getting too close to her Naruto, and internally forced herself to be civil.

"If you grew out his hair" Sakura bit her lip.

"And made him a lot less tan" Ino supplied.

"And made him very much older and more clever" Ten-Ten added "and took away the whiskers..."

"If you did all that, he'd be an exact copy of the Yondaime at his age" Shikamaru said from aside, and all the girls snapped their eyes to him. "What? I eavesdrop, so what? And besides, he has very similar facial structure and build compared to the Yondaime. He's most likely his son". The others gaped at him. He had said that like it was no big deal.

"That's a pretty big leap, Shikamaru-san" Shino questioned quietly.

"Though the symmetry of it all makes my heart ache with poetic youthfulness!" Lee nearly swooned at the notion. "To think, the son following in his father's heroic footsteps without ever knowing even his name or from whence he came. A hero by blood, guided by an unknown legacy-" he yelped as Neji twatted him over the back of the head to shut him up.

"Don't be ridiculous" Neji snorted at him.

"Yeah, keep it in your pants Lee-kun" Ino drawled. "I can't really see the Yondaime in him... but then again I haven't seen the Yondaime's face other than on the side Hokage mountain. He's not very prominent in the history books, is he?"

"Because he died almost eighteen years ago" Sai tried to be helpful from aside while doodling in his sketchbook. He had already undergone this type of training under Danzō-sama, and was quite capable of using some advanced Ninjutus techniques, but as that had been a part of his training that he could never mention he hadn't bothered Kakashi with that. The truth would show itself through his actions instead, and he could tell that this "training", as it were, was more for Naruto's benefit than theirs. "That is not enough time to make one's way into the history books. But I doubt that Dickless is the offspring of someone as incredible as the Yondaime".

"You wanna bet?" Chouji grinned, trusting, as he always did, implicitly in Shikamaru's judgement. "Five hundred Ryō against you buying me an evening's worth of food, eh?"

"Should you really be wanting to eat so much, fa-" before he had time to complete that sentence he was dog-piled into keeping his mouth shut, the others knowing full well what happened if you called Chouji fat.

"What's going on here?" Kakashi asked when he returned with the other teachers to the group of students sitting on the grass, finding Sakura and Shikamaru sitting atop Sai with the Nara shinobi glumly pushing his face into the dirt. "Is he being socially unawares again?"

"Yupp, Kakashi-sensei" Sakura confirmed, and Kakashi sighed and shrugged in a well-what-can-you-do?- sort of way.

"Sai-kun, give a thumbs up if you can hear me from beneath there". Sai slumped, his previously twitching and struggling limps resigning themselves to his new lot in life, and he made a partial Nice Guy Pose to Gai's great joy and infectious pride. "Good. Well then; for those who don't knowI'll be going over basic Ninjutsu principles, just so all of us are on the same page. After this I will supervise the Katon group and Chouji in their exercises while the rest of you are under Kurenai's leadership. Lee-kun, Neji-san; you will have to wait until Naruto is back on his feet and recovered fully before you start sparring with him. Keep in mind that he needs his rest, so if he collapses fetch me or Sakura. Anything short of that you're allowed to push him as far as you think is necessary".

"Of course, Kakashi-sensei" they nodded as one.

"The rest of you: I will have you go through this basic training at the same pace as Naruto, and with his encouragement and knack for... dumbing things down, you should have a grasp of the basics within a few weeks. I hope. If you're very good and focus intently... and have a great amount of luck and talent".

"Don't underestimate us, you masked tosser" Kiba growled challengingly.

"Simmer down, Inuzuka" Shikamaru grumbled in a tone that clearly said that he was really against the entire notion of this. "This would take years of training for most people to master, and you, like some of us, are already schooled in clan Ninjutsu. Relearning chakra manipulation in a whole different way will be very troublesome" he protested.

"And that's why we should get this out of the way as soon as we can" Kakashi cut the dicussion short with a firm tone. "So, without further ado..."

And so, as Kakashi began lecturing, repeating the same things he had told Naruto in steps over the last few days, Hinata began to feel a little like she was back in the academy. Here she was, sixteen and legally an adult, her teacher not even her teacher any more but rather a team mate and leader, her skills now far greater than they had ever been in the academy, but it was as if nothing had changed.

Did one ever stop learning, she philosophised as Kakashi droned on about things she had learned a long time ago. Or was life rather one long succession of lectures in one form or another until one passed on to the next life and started it all over again?

As Kakashi lectured on the nature of chakra Naruto began to move a little in his sleep and started to snore softly, so quietly that only she could hear it. At times her eyes shot down to him, smiling at how absolutely adorable he looked with his mouth slightly open and a tiny bubble of spit growing at the corner of his lips, and she found herself idly touching his hair. Despite how spiky and unruly it seemed to look he had no products in it to make it stand straight, and besides a tendency to be a bit springy his hair actually felt silky and smooth to the touch, of a little coarse at the tips. She hated how pale he was and wondered what the hell the Hokage had put him through, but she was glad to see that he was recovering quickly, already seeming to regain some of his natural colour.

Hinata stiffened as Naruto stirred from his slumber and blinkingly opened his bleary eyes to see pale eyes look back down into his from above. Dark hair fell forwards and framed her delicate face, and the slight red in her cheeks only seemed to accentuate the natural colouring of her graceful lips.

She was pretty. Really, really pretty. How had he not seen that before? "Naruto-kun" she smiled timidly at him, wondering what he would do, speaking quietly as not to disturb the others.

"You smell nice". Naruto, of course, had no such compunctions. "What is it? Lavender, jasmine? I can't tell, but it smells purple-attebayo".

"B-both" she made as if to hide her face when all eyes fell on them due to Naruto's loudness. Neji, as her cousin and bodyguard, would not stand for this.

"Are you sniffing Hinata-sama?!" He roared, and bloody murder was in his eyes. "You insolent pervert!"

"Hold your horses, mate" Naruto sat up, groggy and unsteady, trying to make calming gestures as not to get murderised. "I'm not sniffing anything I shouldn't! No need to cry 'pervert'-attebayo!"

"Neji-niisan, please settle down" Hinata asked, and being obedient as he was Neji did so, though reluctantly at best.

"Keep your hands where I can see them" he stared darkly. "I got my eye on you, Uzumaki".

"Well then" Kakashi said in the suddenly very tense silence that followed "that was... Stimulating. But can we please keep at the lesson, everyone? Sakura, please make sure he doesn't go anywhere - and give him his medicine".

"Right on, sensei" Sakura nodded and promptly took a near-stranglehold on Naruto, shoving blood replenishing pills and her own homemade nutrient packages in the shape, colour and consistency of little balls of mud down his gullet, washing it down with some water from the canteen slung from her hip. Hinata tried to make her be more gentle, but Sakura had grown accustomed to treating Naruto in a certain way, one that as often as not involved bruising.

"Now, the Nara, Akimichi and other Hiden techniques aren't strictly speaking Kekkei Genkai" Kakashi ignored the drama, as he was wont to do, and went on lecturing. "Rather, they are Ninjutsu techniques anyone could feasibly use with the right training. The unique properties of the chakra most of these clansmen possess does make them naturally more inclined towards these techniques, but it's far from a Kekkei Genkai. Rather they are secret techniques, dependent on secret traditions and training-"

"Hinata-chan" Naruto leaned in close and whispered to her once Sakura was done brutalising him, his voice slightly worried. "Why're everyone here? I mean, don't you have missions or training to do?"

"We're here to help you train, N-Naruto-kun" she replied in the same low tone as Kakashi let Gai, who had a penchant for caligraphy, draw up a diagram over the correlation between chakra natures and affinities and their relative weaknesses and strengths. "Kurenai sensei thought we should diversify our skills, so she put us to training under Kakashi with you. And I think that maybe... they want us to guard you. Your Kekkei Genkai-"

"Everyone just keeps banging on and on about it" Naruto grumbled with a childish pout. "It's not that big of a deal, you know. I've been at this for... five or six days now, and I haven't even started on the hardcore Fūton stuff yet-attebayo".

"But you're there with Suiton?" she wondered, to which he shrugged.

"I guess" came the answer shortly "but it's not too useful. I mean, I guess you could blast a person over the noggin with it, but unlike Fūton you can't cut things with water-"

"Yes you can" she informed him, correcting him gently. "If you move it really fast or shoot it really hard it can cut or drill as good as steel".

"Huh" he pondered her words before a grin began to grow on his face. "You're pretty clever, aren't you, Hinata-chan? I never thought of that. Thank you".

"You're welcome" she blushed and noted that the lecture seemed to be winding towards an end. She also noted that she was actually sitting very close to Naruto – Naruto! The boy of her dreams! - and was in the midst of a conversation with him, and the magnitude of that made her feel all giddy on the inside. Maybe a relationship – and actual physical relations – wasn't too far away in the making-

"So there you have it" Kakashi concluded shortly. "Now, we'll start on just you lot realising how to channel your affinity chakra. Katon group and Chouji with me, the rest of you go to Kurenai. Naruto" he looked the blonde over, who was already bouncing in his seat with restrained and regained energy. "Gai, Lee and Neji will take care of you. Continue with your Suiton practice until you produce consistent results. And Asuma" Kakashi looked to the absently thinking Sarutobi "go fetch Tenzō. We need him to build us an arena".

And so they all went their separate ways over the training grounds, Hinata settling down to make a piece of paper catch fire with nothing but her chakra and Chouji trying to make a spark leap between his hands and an iron rod placed just outside of his reach.

Naruto, in the meanwhile, was getting his arse handed to him by the relentless assault of the Taijutsu masters.

* * *

The following days were some of the roughest the Konoha 11 had ever experienced.

Kakashi, once his teaching instincts had been awakened properly, took mostly after his old ANBU drill sergeant in that he seemed absolutely determined to see them rise meteorically or run his students into the ground trying to get there. He had them training with only short breaks from sun-up to sundown, and encouraged them to keep at it even during the nights. He was trying to make them learn at Naruto's pace even if they didn't have the same penchant for tactile learning or used the same Kage Bunshin technique to speed up the training, and it seemed to wear on the students.

Neji and Lee actually found their techniques improved by their constant sparring against Naruto's clones. Without any other clones aiding in the fight against them or access to his signature Rasengan Naruto was at first hopelessly outmatched, but, as he always did, he adapted. He learned to see through Lee's techniques and anticipate the ebb and flow of the Jūken, and his Taijutsu improved by leaps and bounds under the merciless pummelling of Gai. And little by little, as his clones worked by the waterfall and trenches created by Yamato-taicho's nature manipulation, he begun to grow stronger.

Meanwhile his fellow students took to the advanced Ninjutsu principles with varying degrees of success. Most of them had already some grasp of shape manipulation, so what Kakashi was hoping for was to grow some good will among the clans by making the clansmen now under his tutelage add a little elemental expression to the Hiden techniques of their own, making them more powerful if possible. If he got the clans on his side, maybe he could keep himself in charge of the project once the council inevitably found about Naruto's Kekkei Genkai and began to make demands to the Hokage about it. For it wasn't a question about keeping them from finding out altogether, as such a thing was impossible.

It was rather a question of keeping it a secret for as long as they possibly could.

But the degrees by which the other students of Ninjutsu learnt was varied at best, and often their enthusiasm for the subject seemed less than fond. Shikamaru, for example, seemed to put almost no effort at all into the training, spending the time he was supposed to be using burning papers with nothing but chakra staring up at the sky instead, cloud watching. Akamaru kept pestering Kiba, not really seeing the point of it all, and Shino had to be very careful to channel his chakra in a very specific way along his arms as not to force too much into his bugs and cause an imbalance in the already fragile ecosystem that was his body. Sai showed some aptitude – most likely because he had already gone through his kind of training before, as Kakashi rightly guessed – but spent most of his time working on his drawing instead. And Sakura had a very hard time to make her own water-disposed chakra move the way she wanted it to, the element not matching her disposition in the slightest.

On the other hand, the other students seemed to do fine.

Ino, with her customarily supportive role in combat, was eager to prove herself and worked harder than Asuma had ever seen her work before. Ten-Ten sought to gain an edge over Neji and Lee and so did the same, remembering her defeat at the hands of Subaku no Temari and her tessen-channeled Fūton and resolving to beat the foreigner the next time they met. Chouji had little talent for elemental Ninjutsu, it seemed, but he threw himself into it with a passion unrivalled by the others except for Hinata. The Hyūga heiress gave it her all, all the time, staying up late and rising early to keep at the practises almost as long as Naruto did. Though it drained on her immensely it was slowly producing results, as she had mastered the first step of chakra nature manipulation within merely a week, and was the first to go on to the second step.

But what gladdened Kakashi the most was the fact that their team cohesion was so faultless. Even though they bickered and squabbled at times they soon acted more like family than military comrades, and that warmed Kakashi's heart.

In the world that waited Naruto once knowledge of his Kekkei Genkai was made public friendship was a preciously rare commodity.

* * *

"So, what's your type of girl?"

It was the fourth day of training, and also one of the hottest in human memory, and after a hard half-dozen hours of intense training and sparring the young men and women of the Konoha 11 – and Sai – decided it was time for a break. It was even almost unanimous, with only Lee and Naruto offering dissenting opinions, after which they were dog-piled into going along with the popular vote. At this, of course, Ino had a great idea: an outdoor bath, a quick dip in order to wash the sweat away from their tired bodies and hopefully offer some respite from the merciless glares of the sun.

But where?, they asked. The only lake or large body of water was on the far side of town, and even if they instead went to one of the public pools the walk in itself would take far longer than they had time to spare.

Ino reminded them that they were Shinobi in the midst of Ninjutsu training. And with Ninjutsu everything was possible, especially now that they had been more of less left to their own devices as their teachers were off somewhere in some no doubt dreadfully important discussion.

While Naruto, with a few now fairly practised blasts of water created from his own chakra, dug two round basins at the edge of Training Ground 4 and filled them with water, Shino and Ino used what little Doton they could manage together to raise an earthen wall between the two watering holes. Once done, the boys went over to one side with the girls took the other, with only a grudging protest from Kiba who kept eyeing Ino's posterior and a hesitance from Lee, who time and time again had found his gaze slipping down to Sakura's feet when they had been sparring.

So the boys stripped themselves of clothing, Neji and Shino keeping stern watch to make sure that none of the others peeped at the girls on the other side of the earthen divider, and naturally, as conversations often do among teenage boys, they begun talking about women.

"I like my women like I like my coffee" Shikamaru drawled and sighed as he leant back against the earthen side of the pool. "Hot, spicy, and as bitter as almonds".

"For my money she needs to like dogs, or no deal" Kiba spoke firmly, serious as it was he who had broached the topic to begin with. "Still" he began to smile pervertedly "it wouldn't be too bad if she's got well developed hindquarters, if you know what I'm saying".

"Don't matter to me how she looks like" Chouji followed suit, dipping his hair into the water to wash it.

"She just needs to know her way around a kitchen, eh?" Kiba jabbed him in the side with his elbow. At Kiba's side was Akamaru, wallowing in the refreshing bath like a hippo in vat full of liquidised children.

"Yeah, pretty much- hey!" Chouji turned and glared, outraged at how much of a misogynistic ponce the now laughing Inuzuka was making him out to look like. "No! She needs to be kind, and sweet... but I wouldn't mind her being a little prickly, you know? Tsundere-types are kind of cute, don't you guys think?"

"I think you've got a condition" Neji grumbled and shook his head, his long hair spreading drops of water everywhere. "Talking about women like this... it reduces them to nothing but inanimate objects of desire based on their attraction to us. That's not how society's supposed to work!"

"Just because you're completely repressed, white-eyes" Naruto couldn't help but to snicker, grinning as he slid deeper into the cool water. "By the way, you lot just give me a hoot if the water's too warm and I'll get it sorted-attebayo".

"I'm not repressed!" Neji spat back.

"Then prove it, Hyūga-kun" Chouji pressed with a grin.

"Alright then!" the noble genius threw his hands into the air and surrendered to his rowdy mates. "Perky girls!"

"You have got to say more than that, white-eyes" Sai was slowly getting into the swing of things, for as pale and weird as he was he wasn't completely oblivious. "Perky breasts, perky eyes, perky shoes...?"

"Bubbly" Neji reluctantly began to describe. "The happy kind that makes you forget all about your destiny, you know? And energetic, and she needs to have pretty legs. That's all I've got, really".

"Damn" Kiba snickered "and here I thought it was going to be something pervy-attebayo".

"If we want pervy, we should probably ask Lee" Chouji looked the the bushy brow in question, who subsequently launched into a ten minutes long triade containing frank descriptions of sexual intercourse of _very_ strange nature and depictions of female anatomy so accurate that the other boys wondered if they were supposed to be sickened or aroused. Once done Lee looked again to Chouji, who was looking pale and nauseous, his bag of crisps put aside and out of his reach.

"You ignorant fool" Neji allowed a tiny smirk to slip through his outwardly impeccable façade. "You should have known better".

"I dunno" Naruto seemed thoughtful as he mused on what Lee had described. "I kind of think that whole 'wooden spoon and kendo-mask' thing you mentioned is very inventive-attebayo".

"Then again, you did spend the last three years with the biggest pervert on the face of the planet" Shikamaru noted.

"Hey, about that" Kiba spoke up, making sure that he was petting Akamaru who otherwise would have swatted him with a paw the size of a frying pan. "What's your kink, Uzumaki? Everyone's got one, and you probably saw all kinds of sordid shit when you travelled with Jiraiya-sama".

"Come on, you've got to tell us!" Chouji pressed, if nothing else wanting to wash the 'youthfulness' from out of his mind.

"Yes, are you gay or not, Dickless?" Sai wondered with that plastic grin of his, making Naruto sputter and curse. "I've heard your first kiss was with that Uchiha traitor".

"That was an accident" Naruto growled as several of the other lads snickered. "And I want to know who the hell told you that!" He had been repressing that memory for years, and all that hard work had now been obliterated in an instant.

"Sakura" came the level answer, and the blonde growled like an angered fox.

"Don't you bother about that, Naruto-kun" Lee spoke up and put a hand upon Naruto's shoulder, considered to be very much improper body contact at that moment since all of them were naked beneath the surface of the water. "Your preferences do not matter to us. We are your youthful friends-"

"Ah!" Naruto jerked away from him, blushing beet-red, eyes wide and voice hoarse in embarrassment. "What the hell, mate?! Don't say shite like that when you're nude!"

"Don't act like you mind it, Dickless" Sai jeered unintentionally, having the social grace of an anti-social leper with a habit of sneezing on people.

"Alright" he starred daggers at the pale boy who was considered by Danzō and the entirety of ROOT to be the strongest of his generation. "I'll talk... if nothing else but to shut you up".

"Then spill it, Naruto-kun" Chouji pressed in the spirit of camaraderie. "What woman will capture the heart of the hero of Konoha, defeater of Shukaku the Ichibi, master of the Hyōton?"

"Someone's been hanging out with Lee too much" Kiba noted dryly as Naruto thought deeply on the matter.

He had always, as far as he could remember, had a crush on Sakura, and as a boy he had thought she was the most beautiful person in the world, even though he slowly began to realise that she would never feel for him the way he felt about her. Also, she was a bit of a violent nutter with a mild case of split personality-disorder... which, granted, had both been better and worse by her tutelage under Tsunade-obaachan. She was no longer bipersonal, but in turn she was more prone to sudden bursts of violence and cursing. Not the most steady of types, he had come to admit. So maybe she wasn't ideal marriage material or whatever.

And Ero-sennin had often spoken a bit of relationship advice: when in doubt, go for the one with the biggest tits. As advice went it was certainly informative of his personality, but otherwise it wasn't very useful. Still, for some reason Naruto couldn't help but to think of it...

He found himself remembering that time four days ago when Hinata had almost slipped into his Suiton practice trench, when he had picked her up and jumped out of the trench with her so that she didn't get dirty or hurt. She had been so light in his arms, so soft and yet so densely muscled and firm, and the way she had clung to him, the peep she had uttered as her head leant against his chest so that the top of her head was a hair from touching his necklace's crystal, had been so... so impossibly cute. She had seemed to vulnerable as she clung to him, and when she looked up to him with shining eyes he had been almost unable to restrain himself, even though he didn't want her to think he was a pervert.

Something about her; the way she moved with a humble grace, the way she spoke with kind humility, the way she smiled so radiantly, the way she thought so intelligently... or the way her body curved beneath her baggy clothes like his teacher's wettest dream of young girls come true. Something about her called on him.

He didn't love her. Or, at least, he didn't yet. But he wanted her.

Ancestor's help him, he wanted her so badly.

Maybe it was because she had so many qualities that he found attractive, or maybe it was because she was the exact opposite of Sakura. "If I ever had time to get a girlfriend" he said finally to the expectant young men around him "I'd want her to be kind. She'd never tell me I was worthless, or mock me, or call me stupid. She'd be clever and good at fighting, but not stuck up about it. And she'd like to train with me, and listen to what I have to say, and go on picnics and on dates and stuff. And she want to have lots of kids".

"Wait, what?" Shikamaru perked up at that.

"We were just asking about girlfriends or shagfancies, not the one you want to get hitched to" Kiba clarified, a sudden silence settling over the pool.

"But why be together with someone unless you're serious about it-attebayo?" Naruto wondered. "I mean, if you don't like each other enough to stand each other for a long time, why get together at all? If you're together, you're precious to each other aren't you?"

For the longest time there no one said anything.

"Dickless" Sai smiled then. "You really are gay, aren't you?"

"Oh, that's bloody it!" Naruto roared and made to strangle his team mate, the other lads struggling to keep him back, the water splashing madly around them. Meanwhile, on the other side of the divider, there was a bit of tension in the air.

"They have no idea we can hear everything they say, do they?" Ino asked her three fellow kunoichi in a low voice, and they shook their heads in response. "Boy's are idiots".

"Yeah" Hinata smiled, her hand to her lip and her eyes sparkling with joy. "Idiots".

But her dancing heart said otherwise.

* * *

Hinata moved on to the second step of Ninjutsu training the very next day, after Kakashi had berated them for the frivolous use of their shinobi abilities and for missing out on valuable training time. For those seeking full use of their Katon affinity this meant trying to make a dried log, placed with one end in the earth so it stood upright like a neck-high pole, catch fire with nothing but chakra, and maintain the fire lest it peter out or fail to ignite.

Hinata did well on that, which Kakashi didn't find all that surprising. She was a Hyūga, after all, and many of their more advanced clan techniques depended on them expelling energy from out of the chakra pressure points all over their bodies. And with her own special technique she had begun to master charka shape manipulation – whether she knew it when she started doing it or not – so it was simply a matter for her to focus on her nature manipulation and she would have it sorted.

Naruto, in the meanwhile, was excelling under pressure. After merely ten days he had already mastered the practical application of both Suiton and Fūton, and began to use blasts of water and air when sparring with Neji and Lee to gain the upper hand over them. Still, Gai pushed him to excel onwards, and put up a midway goal which after reaching Naruto would be, in Gai's own words, "rewarded": create a Rasengan with only one hand, and use it as it was meant to be used. The reward in question was Gai paying for a night at Ichiraku Ramen where Naruto could eat as much as he wanted. Gai would pay for everything.

As for the others, it soon became apparent that Shikamaru did a lot better than he was letting onto, and he, along with Chouji and Ino, became the first to join Hinata in the advanced training procedures to Asuma's great pride. Soon after came Ten-Ten, eager to add her own chakra expression to her fighting style. On the eleventh day of training Shino too began to follow in the advanced practices.

And on the twelft day of training, a breakthrough on all sides was made.

* * *

"Hinata-sama" Hinata stepped back from her practice at the log and wiped the sweat from her brow with a trembling arm. It was getting deeper into summer now, and the heat was building until it was nearly as warm as in Sunagakure, though much more humid. Most of the others were making good headway on their efforts while Naruto, and a whole slough of clones, were covering one entire half of the training grounds while in the midst of trying to apply nature transformation chakra to the Rasengan. On top of the waterfal cliff that Yamato had been kind enough to provide the real Naruto was sparring with Lee and Gai all at once, since an accidental push of water ejected from his palms had sent Neji spiralling over the edge of the cliff to land hard and break his arm on the ground below.

"What is it, Neji-niisan?" she wondered, panting slightly, to the cousin that now sat not a long ways off, watching her train with his arm in a sling. Despite the heat she wore her baggy jacket zipped up all the way to her chin, as she lacked the confidence to take it off, and as a result she almost seemed to be melting inside her clothes.

"There is something" he seemed hesitant, slow to speak, and he was worried over how she would take it "something you should know. Your father, and the clan elders, have been talking at length. They have been speaking about you, Hinata-sama".

"W-what about?" she wondered, a little timid before the notion. She doubted that it was anything good by the way he was bringing it up.

"Hinata-sama" he hesitated again. "Your father, Hiashi-sama... he is petitioning to have you reinstated as heir to his office. And it seems that, after you bested me the other day, the elders are inclined to agree. Hanabi-sama, she... she is a little disappointed, but she seems to be happy for you, and has agreed to relinquish the title of heir in favour of you. If you would agree to this... you would be heir to the clan once more".

"W-what?!" she stared at him, wide of eye, her thoughts crashing to a halt in her head. "W-why now? After all this time..." She had been stripped of the heirdom when she was just nine years old, after it was agreed that she was too "meek of heart and weak of mettle" to ever rule the clan and defend their position in Konoha. They were a warrior clan after all, despite their sometimes reputation as mere farseers and scouts who charged more than any other clan for their services, and warriors could not have a coward lead them.

"As you've bested me when we fought on equal terms, Hinata-sama, and invented the first original Jūken technique in a century, the elders are inclined to agree with Hiashi-sama's decision. If you would accept this onus, which is rightly yours, no one would contest your ascension. They already say you are a master greater than even I in skill".

" _Naruhodo_ " she muttered, her fingers trembling. What the hell was she supposed to say after so long being considered weak and inferior? "C-could I... could I have some time to think it over, Neji-niisan?"

"Certainly, Hinata-sama" he bowed slightly and let her return to the practise. While her body focused on the exercise at hand, her mind was racing.

Heir, once again? She hadn't been sad when her mother told her she was being stripped of that title all those years ago. Well, maybe a little, but only because her father and her kinsmen thought she was insufficient and weak, and their clan was one of the richest and most esteemed in all of Konoha, contested only by the Aburame, Akimichi and Shimura now that the Uchiha were gone from the political scene. She doubted she was worthy of leading them anyway.

So instead of being forced to study leadership and economics like her sister she could follow whatever interests she wanted, and in lieu of training to become a leader of the clan she focused her time on a single boy. What better things did she have to do with her time, anyway? Since she wasn't fit to rule, chasing boys and making music and doing simple missions seemed to be what she was allowed to do.

But now? If they asked her to rule the clan...

She loved her family, as dysfunctional and often fractured as it was. Her sister, her father, her timid mother who could not stand the sight of blood, her cousin, her extended relatives, the grandparents who always smiled at her and said that they very much enjoyed her music and her cooking... she loved them all. She had always had them around her, and being Hyūga... it was who she was. She had the eyes of the clan, and the skill of the clan, and the heart to stay forever loyal to the clan.

Did she have the strength to lead it?

That would mean taking her time away from her training and her team to spend at her father's side as he met with vassals and allies, negotiate marriage proposals and trade agreements and review missions the specifically required a Hyūga's skill on behalf to her clansmen, and, above all, mean she had to act like a clan leader was expected to act. She would not compromise on her kindness, never, not for anything, but she would have to be the moral centre of the clan, and thus...

Thus she could not engage in extramarital affairs and relations, especially with an orphan such as Naruto. But this was for the good of the clan, and as heir and eventually leader she could change it for the better. She could disbar the practice of the cursed seal and make sure no one would suffer like Neji or uncle Hizashi had ever again. She could help so many people?

Was it worth it to sacrifice her love for that?

No, as clan heir she didn't have to do anything of the sort. They had already acknowledge her martial prowess and strength of character, and so they would have go along with her choice for a lover once she had made Naruto hers. She would make them see.

And she would be the best damn clan leader since the founder of the clan, Asura Hyūga of the Asura family. She would make them all see the better way.

She would lead the clan to a brighter tomorrow.

And as she resolved to do just that, the flames that had sputtered from her fingertips flared up into a steady stream of fire ejecting from the whole of her hands, engulfing the log before her in a whirling pillar of flame that shot high into the air, a stream that she maintained for minutes even despite the stress it put on her. All over the training grounds her comrades stopped in their practice to look at her, and Kakashi on his perch high in a tree smiled wickedly beneath his mask. _One down_ , he thought, _ten to go_.

"I'm honoured by this charge, which I accept without reservation" she terminated the flow of fire and turned to her cousin, who was once again in awe of her power. "And niisan... thank you".

"It will be my pleasure to serve you" he bowed awkwardly over his broken arm "Hinata-ojousama".

"I'll make sure you'll fly free, brother" she pulled him to his feet and hugged him arm, careful not to touch upon his arm. "And no one will have to be a slave any more".

"Thank you" he whispered and let his healthy arm encircle her "neesan". He might never have said it, or be able to say it, but he was so proud of her that it almost made his chest ache. She truly was the best of the clan, in all the ways imaginable. And if she became clan leader, he would be at her side in everything.

Always.

"Congratulations, Hinata-san!" Kakashi's voice made the cousins drift apart as their captain now stood mere feet away, Hinata blushing under his praise. "You're the first of this lot who's managed to get all the way to the final stage of the training. Now it's simply a matter of combining your chakra nature transformation with shape transformation to-"

"I've already an idea for that, Kakashi-sensei" she interrupted depsite how rude it was of her to do that, and as everyone but the ones sparring watched her she took a wide-spread stance and pulled her hands up to her sides, channelling her chakra as only she could. As she punched out with both hands at once her body seemed to blaze with ejected chakra that spilled over from her technique, and twin lion heads, roaring with battle-rage and blood-lust, burned around her hands. She had only been able to create one head before, but after the long and gruelling hours spent practising with her chakra nature transformation her capabilities had increased, and with a steady breath she applied that very same transformation to her ultimate technique, making the lions blaze golden and red.

"Katon: Honosōshiken!" she cried, and with a twist of the body and a leap she turned around and struck in the air towards the woods behind her, and from her hands the burning lions surged forwards hungrily. As the twin beasts struck the edge of the woods they kept on rushing forwards as if they were the actual beasts they were named for even as the trees behind them caught fire, until some distance in where they converged and struck each other. For a second they seemed to almost wink out of existence as they combined to a tiny speck of burning energy.

And for an instant, silence reigned supreme.

The resounding blast and the shockwave that followed knocked the Konoha 11 off their feet and onto their backs as a pillar of fire shot high towards the heavens, reddening the azure sky. A massive influx of air surged onto that pillar before it roared outwards and turned into a blazing fire-storm, a forest fire that seemed to be speeding mercilessly towards Konoha.

Hinata, even as tired as she was, gaped in awe. She had expected something, but not _that_.

Kakashi's reaction was merely a wry smile while Asuma's and Kurenai's were a little less orthodox.

"Whoa" Kurenai gaped as Yamato and Kakashi surged past them with Suiton blasts at the ready.

"Pissing blimey, I did not see that coming,!" Asuma stared. "Maybe we should help put it out-"

"Probably" his partner nodded, and they followed fast after Kakashi to try and stop the wildfire before it spread too far and encroached onto the wooden walls of their village. As they struggled against the fire Hinata was pushing her fingertips together, eyes locked at the ground.

"Ehm, Hinata" it was Kiba who was speaking, standing next to a whining Akamaru. "Remind me not to piss you off if I ever get cheeky, will you? I'm not suicidal, after all".

"That was quite something" Shino noted simply, lowering his glasses in amazement once he was sure no one would see his eyes.

"Whoa! Awesome, Hinata-chan!" Of course, leave it to Naruto to be upbeat about just about anything, as he went down to join the others alongside Gai and Lee while several of his clones went to help put the fire out. "That's the most amazing thing I've ever seen-attebayo!"

"T-thank you, Naruto-kun" she smiled at him. "I'm sorry about the woods, though, and for making everyone distracted from their training. I didn't mean for the explosion to be quite so... large".

"Then you must work on your chakra control!" Gai decreed a little too loudly, making all of them jump and Kiba clutch his sensitive ears. "Hinata-san, Naruto-kun – you two shall spar now! Spend ten minutes preparing before you meet me at the top of the cliff! Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!" the attentive younger carbon copy of the verdant beast answered immediately.

"We shall climb it with nothing but our teeth! Iku ze, Lee!"

"Yosh, Gai-sensei!" came the answering cry, and together the two rushed towards the cliff.

"Those two are off their fucking rockers" Shikamaru grumbled from aside, sinking down into the grass to watch the clouds and the smoke now that no one was telling him to shape up. "Too bloody troublesome".

"Well, see you in a bit, Hinata-chan!" Naruto smiled happily and strutted away, leaving Hinata staring at his broad back. He was still bare chested, his natural tan having deepened over the last few days spent in the sun, and the very sight of the rippling muscles over his back and torso that moved almost fluidly beneath his skin made her insides quiver.

"Sakura-chan" Hinata spoke up and turned to Naruto's pink-haired former love interest and team mate. "Would you happen to have some soldier pills on you?" After all, she needed to make an impression on him, and a lasting one at that.

A little ways later she and Naruto stood facing each other on one side of the massive waterfall at the end of the training grounds, Kurenai, Kakashi and Gai in attendance now that the fire-storm had been thoroughly put out and Yamato was in the process of restoring the woods to their former verdant glory. He had shed his jacket already and took a cocky fighting stance, smiling encouragingly at her.

She, on the other hand, was uncertain. This was her hour, her chance to prove herself to him, but now the butterflies in her stomach were trying to claw their way out of her and she was nearly made undone by the nervousness she felt. No! She had to do this! And she was going to impress him and make him fall out of love with Sakura, she swore it! So she shrugged off her jacket after unzipping it, and Naruto's eyes nearly bugged out of his head.

Upon her upper body she wore only mesh armour that covered her from the hollow of her throat to the bottom tip of her sternum, armour that was stretched hard over her expensive chest. Naruto's eyes darted down to her midriff, the muscles in stark definition there beneath her creamy skin, before his eyes flashed up again and locked in on her bosom. "Faith and Begorrah, I think I'm love-attebayo" he muttered beneath his breath.

"What did you say, Naruto-kun?" she wondered at his illegible whisper, a deep crimson blush upon her cheeks as she knew where he was looking so intently. Was there something wrong with her? She knew he had liked Sakura for the longest time, so maybe he preferred smaller women with less... expansive 'tracts of land'?

"Nothing!" he shook his head to clear it, not wanting to be called a pervert, and got into a low stance as to conceal his budding erection. "Show me what you've got, Hinata-chan!"

"Are you ready, Hinata-san?" Kakashi wondered softly, and when she nodded he cleared his throat. "Alright then. Hajime!"

Naruto attacked, as was his habit, his fighting style based around battering the enemy down in relentless charges. Unfortunately for him, the Jūken was nearly perfect on the defensive, and so she dodged the strike he aimed for her midriff and made to attack his arm.

But Naruto had been fighting Neji, her teacher, and he knew the moves of the Gentle Fist fighting style. He pulled his arm away in the last possible moment and twisted his entire body around, arching his leg as he spun around with a kick aimed towards her head.

She dodged barely and was forced on the retreat as he kept pressing after her, but every blow he struck at her was either powerless when he was put off balance or glancing at best, while she landed not a single hit on him. And in a way she didn't want to hit him, and he didn't want to hurt her. For now, as they fought, they touched each other again and again, albeit briefly, and as they panted their breaths fell upon each other's skins.

Naruto's arm suddenly snaked around her neck, wanting to lock her down and toss her up and over onto her back as to end the match with a conclusive victory in his favour, but she would have none of it. With a slight smile her hand lashed out and struck his triceps with a haze of blue chakra around it, numbing it and making him grunt in pain. As he darted back and away from her she took her stance again and gave him a challenging look, her hands blazing with the Jūken's debilitating aura.

Time to start doing this properly.

He concurred silently with a grin mirroring hers and raised his other hand, the one he could move that didn't swing limply from his shoulder. As Kakashi breathed sharply from the sidelines Naruto set his eyes and jaw and focused hard as whirling chakra appeared in the centre of his palm, forming a perfect sphere of yellow-gold chakra into a silent Rasengan.

"He did it" Kakashi said from the sidelines and Neji sat down beside him, eyes fixed on the combatants. "He actually did it". _Sensei, you would be so proud_.

As Naruto launched after her she flashed to the side, the Rasengan striking the earth where she had been standing and exploding it into a large crater. She attacked after him, but he moved out of her reached and charged his signature technique again, and again, and forth and back they flowed for many minutes, graceful as if dancing, panting as if deep in the throes of passion. In the end he set his eyes hard on her, her eyes seeing red and boiling chakra rise in the depths of his stomach, and his arm twisted as the acidic energy flowed into it, the chakra coils jerking as if they wanted to reject it. Under the pressure of the new energy his arm's tenketsu, closed by her strike, opened wide, and he rolled his shoulder as he moved it again.

From where had he gotten that chakra? Hinata put those thoughts aside as he summoned half a dozen clones to his side, knowing her pondering as to the source of power would have to wait. As he gathered his spectral copies about him she forced the chakra around her hands to mingle with the Katon chakra she was moulding, giving it a burning and raging appearance as it went about her limbs.

And as they fought with renewed vigour none of them held anything back. The lion heads blazed around her hands as she struck after him, making his clones evaporate into fine mist as she went, until but she faced the original and only a single clone that were hanging back, readying some very powerful Jutsu.

"Don't hold back, Hinata!" Kurenai shouted encouragingly.

"Yeah, give him what for, Hinata-sama!" Neji shouted his accord, and Hinata narrowed her eyes.

What had they said? "Naruto thrives under pressure"? And if she wanted him to see her as what she really was, then the glover would have to come off and the brass knuckles would have to come on. So she set her sight on Naruto, panting just as hard as he did, and stopped thinking of him as a lover. All that was before her was an opponent.

And she was Hyūga. She saw all things beneath heaven, and all would cower beneath her strength. " Katon" she put herself into a deep stance and lashed out with her lion-headed hands "Honosōshiken!"

Only when that technique had leapt from her hands did she realise what she had done, and stared in limp horror as the spectral lions of celestial fire surged through the air towards Naruto. She didn't even have time to scream.

Naruto, in response, merely summoned a Rasengan into his hand while one of his last clones stood by his side. Together they made something new.

"Suiton: Rasenringu!"

Something powerful.

In his hand that Rasengan changed shape as the clone by his side went out of existence with a puff of smoke. From a whirling sphere it seemed to condense to a much smaller orb, and beyond it a ring of water had come into being, whirling around the Rasengan centre with a howling sound. As the lions converged onto an exploding point Naruto struck them with that new jutsu, and the blast was nearly completely negated.

Nearly.

Naruto and Hinata was flung through the air at a sudden blast of steam to bloomed out to cover the world like mist. The techniques crashed in a clash that seemed to make the very foundations of the earth tremble, but ultimately cancelled each other out... mostly. A rush of luke-warm water flowed out from that hissing epicentre and lapped at Naruto's back as he lay sprawled upon the ground, his ears ringing and his vision blurry as a weight was upon his chest. Idly he lost focus and found his grasp on his clones slip, only half-sensing the fatigue the copies of him brought with them as they were dispelled, for his entire body ached, bruised beyond belief. Breathing was hard, as if something was weighing on him from above, and he made to lift it away -

Only to find something soft yet firm in his hands. He focused his gaze and found a disoriented pair of pale eyes staring back into his. "Hmm... Naruto-kun" she purred and thrust her breast deeper into his hands. He was using both his hands, yet it was far from enough to cover even half of her bosom, and despite the mesh armour's rough texture and springy feel he could feel the softness of her beneath it. The hardness he had been trying to hide from her before sprung into life once more despite how tired he was, and as pressed into her thigh as his crotch was she began to feel it and stir.

So he pulled his hands away in a flash out to the sides, thankful for the mist around them. If Neji had seen him take such liberties with his cousin he would be out for blood, broken arm or not. And he didn't want Hinata to think he was a pervert... though it was most likely too late for that already. "Hinata-chan, I'm sorry" he managed to stammer out, but the blush on her face wasn't... It was an odd look she gave him, hooded and deep, yet she seemed to yearn for him like he yearned for her.

"It's alright, Naruto-kun" she whispered back, her voice somehow steady and deeper than it usually was. "I... I don't mind". And, tentatively, almost experimentally, she moved her thigh over the hardness she felt pressing into it through his and her clothes, to which he gasped. She did to, at her own lewdness and shocking behaviour, but the only thing in the forefront of her mind was _Naruto_.

She had longed for him. For so many years she had imagined giving herself to him in body and in soul, and here it was, almost reality.

It wasn't enough. She needed _more_.

"Hinata" he whispered to her, a trembling hand rising to fall upon her cheek. He spoke her name without honorific, something reserved only for the closest of friends and... lovers. She wanted him to always say her name like that. Always. "We shouldn't-"

"I don't care" she replied and moved her face down towards his. Normally she wouldn't have done this, normally she definitely wouldn't have been this forward, but with the adrenalin from the fight and the concussion from the explosion her judgement had been sufficiently impaired to take the day off and tell her desires to take the reins and go nuts. His face was so close now, only a hair away, and his musky scent filled her nostrils. Her heart was racing as if terrified, but the feeling was as exhilarating as it was scary. Only a little closer, and they would-

"Hinata-sama!" cried a voice from beyond the mist and snapped her out of her delirium as if waking her from a dream, and the guilt and embarrassment she felt at the situation made the blood rush to her head. Her ears rang, the world spun, and then the lights went out-

"Hinata?" a motherly voice asked softly as she slowly regained consciousness, rising from the too familiar darkness of unawareness. She was laying on her back, a rolled up towel beneath her head and a wet cloth upon her brow, and sitting next to her, bent over her, was a worried Kurenai-sensei with a hand in her hair. "She's waking up! You gave us quite a scare, lass".

"What happened?" Hinata wondered in a drawl and Neji and Kakashi joined the older woman. She remembered a flash and water and steam and a hand upon her- The blushed returned to her cheeks with a vengeance.

"You both used an S-ranked Jutsu" Kakashi explained "and the two seemed on equal terms, mostly cancelling each other out. Well, Suiton is naturally strong against Katon, so it was in the favour of Naruto's technique".

"Naruto-kun..." she begun to ask as she struggled to sit up, not seeing him.

"Don't worry: he's down below already, working on his Fūton version of the Rasengan. I couldn't imagine; in one sparring match with you not only does he starts using the Rasengan one-handedly, but he also invents an S-ranked Jutsu thought by the most skilful shinobi of all time to be impossible. And then he carries you out of the steam when you were knocked unconscious like a true gentleman. You surely bring out the best in him, Hinata-san". Kakashi smiled at her beneath his mask as Kurenai helped her stand, and she only nodded limply his way.

She still remembered his breath upon her lips and his stiffness against her thigh, and the memory sent shivers down her spine and made her inner thighs itch. But how could she look him in the eye after this?!

In the end they didn't spar any more that day, and Naruto hardly had time to even look at her as she was told to go around and help the others reach their full potential while he focused on his application of wind natured chakra to his Rasengan. And so for hours she kept stealing glances his way, wondering if he had been too dazed to remember what had happened, what had almost happened -

And their day was cut short when an ANBU footman flashed into the clearing, saying that team Asuma was called to the Hokage's presence. Kakashi disputed that, but since the bird-masked ANBU soldier said it was concerning a personal matter of one of Asuma's old friends in the Twelve Guardians of the Fire Lord he had little recourse to stop Asuma from going. So the rest of them were sent home, and Hinata slouched as she had had no time to speak with Naruto about what had happened.

"Hinata-chan!" However, as she walked back to Konoha alongside Ten-Ten and Sakura, that seemed to be about to change. The three young women turned to see Naruto sprinting towards them, his jacket draped over his arm and sweat shining upon her body. "Hinata-chan! About before-"

"Y-you should go on ahead" Hinata urged the other two young women, and Ten-Ten looked to Sakura with a silent "Well, it's about time" and shrugged, leading her friend and fellow kunoichi away by the arm. Naruto stopped before her as she began to fidget and squirm, uncertain of what was going to happen. "Naruto-kun..."

"I'm sorry about before!" he bowed to her, a blush mirroring her own beneath the whiskers upon his cheeks. "I acted inappropriately and perversely, and made you very uncomfortable". His words sounded rehearsed and stiff, as if he had been figuring on the best way to say them to her for a long time. "I'm very sorry if I've made you think training with me is a bad idea. I promise I won't do it again, and please, I want you to keep being my friend!

"Naruto-kun..." she wondered with a worried frown. "W-what are you talking about?"

"You don't remember?!" he wondered, a little too loudly for comfort. "I- I- I" he mimed doing some general grabbing, but she didn't understand. "I sort of" he raised his hands so that they was level with her breast and made a squeezing motion in the air. "You know, before. When you were laying on top of me-attebayo".

"You" her hands went to her chest as her face become first a deep shade of red that soon begun to border on blue. "You t-touched me... here?" Her thoughts seemed to move sluggishly, and though she had resolved to become his... his lover (the very thought made her weak in the knees!) she didn't rightly know exactly how to feel about him groping her. "I see".

"Uhm" his gaze seemed riveted to where her hands lay upon her chest. "Aye, I sorta did... sorry".

"Naruto-kun" she swallowed her distress and stepped up towards him, forcing her hands to lay flat against her sides. "I don't-" well, that would be a lie. She did mind, but only because he hadn't become her boyfriend yet. She'd always been told to be a good girl make sure she waited for marriage, as befitted a woman of noble standing, but if it was with Naruto... she didn't care about marriage if he didn't. "You shouldn't have done that" she whispered, and he paled visibly, sweat going down his back from an entirely other reason than the heat. She took another step towards him, and she wondered if he could hear the thunderous hammering of her heart.

In the end, she wasn't brave enough. " _You shouldn't have done that, because now I won't be able to think of anything but your touch_ " was what she thought she should have said, and what she would have said if she had been more brave. And even as close as she stood to him, she wasn't brave enough to kiss him on the lips.

So she stretched up and stood on the tips of her toes to lean back her head and kiss him upon the cheek. Her lips were wet and soft against his skin, the slight stubble and rough texture tickling her lips, and as she pressed her mouth against the whisker marks upon his face a shot of pure energy seemed to go through her, making ever hair on her body feel like they stood on end. By his proximity, by his touch, she felt super-charged, and she closed her eyes to revel in the sensation.

Naruto, on his end of it, stood stock still in statue-like stiffness, wondering if it was all a dream. Her lips were so soft, so moist, like wetted silk against his cheek. Within him his instincts screamed at him to wrench her into his arms and force her lips to his, screaming at him to take her, take her hard right then and there, and damn the consequences. But this was Hinata-chan. She was soft, and cute, and tender despite her strength, and he could never do that to her. His reasons for restraining himself were, however, rapidly deteriorating.

Before he could do something he would regret she moved her head away from his cheek and stood back down, stepping away from him. Timidly, as she returned to her full faculties, she looked at her feet and fidgeted at her hands, not wanting to see how he looked at her now. Did he think her a woman of the even kind? Did he consider her a slattern and a loose girl? Didn't he know that she would only ever do this around him?

But she said none of those things.

"See you tomorrow, Naruto-kun" she stuttered out and turned away from him, walking briskly after her now distant friends. Naruto stared after her, his eyes fixed on her voluminous posterior, and he swallowed hard. He could not be rude, could he? When someone said goodbye you returned the gesture.

"Aye, see you about, Hinata!" he replied, and in his disoriented state he forgot an honorific to go with her name. That, unbeknownst to him, only made her happier. She flashed him a smile over her shoulder before she darted away, leaving him slightly perplexed and confused and scratching his head as the day wore on towards afternoon.

What the hell was going on?

And what was this warm, fluttering feeling in the pit of his stomach?

"Bloody shite" he cursed and slapped himself over the brow "I don't have time to fall in love again!"

* * *

Shizune didn't believe what Tsunade had done.

No, she did believe it. She did believe that Tsunade had essentially cut Naruto up from navel to throat without so much as an IV hooked into his arm, taken out most of what he had inside, stitched him back up and shoved blood-replenishing pills down his throat in lieu of any actual recovery. Shizune had found pictures of it. She did believe it.

She just didn't want to.

To the Hokage's credit Shizune read that they had provided some post-op care for Naruto, mostly aimed at getting his fluids back up to normal and stimulants that would boost temporarily his healing factor at the cost of throwing his metabolism out of whack for a few days. And thanks to that, and to his inhuman durability and regenerative capability, Naruto had survived and was now back to training with hardly any adverse side effects.

All of this was documented with photographs and neat rows of spidery script, written in Tsunade's hand. She had done this, and she had done this personally.

And Shizune came to a realisation that had been in the long time coming: that her master, the Godaime Hokage Senju Tsunade, was the worst possible choice of Hokage outside of Orochimaru one could find.

She was a drunk, a frivolous gambler, and she didn't even keep to the beliefs of the village, shirking the Will of Fire for her own goddesses of fortune that she prayed to for luck in between games. She had stayed outside the village for years, drinking and gambling and speaking ill of Konoha and Shinobi in general, and spent her drunken nights in a haze in which she smiled at the faces of loved ones now passed. Now, as Hokage, she hardly ever took her job seriously: either she slept on the job and had her aides do it all for her, or she worked through it so rapidly that she didn't even read the reports her own soldiers sometimes struggled to provide, stamping them approved with nary a glance. When it came to orders she barked them without a care, as a leader she was careless, and as a political advocate of the Konoha cause she had all the social grace of an incontinent rhinoceros drunk on cheap sake. She was vain, slothful, frivolous and hostile.

But this...

Shizune growled at the folder in her hands. With this, Tsunade might as well have become exactly like Orochimaru. Naruto was the closest damn thing she would ever have to a son, and this was what she did to him?

A man, dirty and clad in rags despite his shaven head declaring him to be a monk and a holy man, had arrived at Konoha just an hour earlier, and had pleaded to speak with the Hokage. Apparently, the Hi no Tera, Temple of Fire, had been attacked by Akatsuki, and Chiriku, a former member of the twelve guardian ninja in daimyo Zozen's bodyguard, had been killed, the temple destroyed. This was an act of aggression made towards the citizens of their nation and upon their sovereign land. This was tantamount to an invasion, and that was enough to rouse Tsunade from her exile. So the woman had stormed out of her office, shouting orders to the left and right, and Shizune had quietly slunk into her office to clean up after her and make sure she was taking care of herself.

But she had found piles and piles of horrid research, most of it old and conducted by Orochimaru, a man so thoroughly without scruples that he was considered to be as cold-blooded as the snakes he summoned. But one folder, labelled "Arctic Fox" was new, and the contents of it were written and ordered by Tsunade's hand.

How could she? Shizune raged at it silently, angry tears streaming down her face. What had made that kind but faulted woman descend into such... such evil?! It was nothing but – evil in it's purest and most malevolent form. What did she have for justifications for this matter? How could she possibly see anything good with doing something like this?!

"Ah, Shizune!" said the voice from the doorway of that office, and in stepped Tsunade whilst idly fanning her face. "There you are. It seems Akatsuki are on the move, and have attacked or vassals at Hi no Tera. I've organised a search for the vermin, which Asuma will be leading. Most of our jounin force are out in the field now, and-" she stopped as Shizune looked up at her, rage burning in her eyes.

"You bitch!" Shizune snarled and flicked out with her hand, sending senbon needles tipped with a paralysing poison hurtling through the air.

"Shizune, what-!" the Hokage barely managed to dodge the projectiles in time, the needles caught upon her sleeve but failing to touch her skin. "What the hell is going on?!"

"You-!" Shizune was at a loss for words, her hands trembling as she held up that vile folder for the medic mistress to see, Tsunade's cheeks going pale at the sight of it. "You dare? You dare ask that?! Why?!"

"Shizune, wait!" the Hokage pleaded of her apprentice and oldest and most constant friend. "Give me a chance to explain! This is about the bigger picture!"

"Fuck the bigger picture!" Shizune shouted, tossing the folder to the ground to spread the photos of living organs all over the floor. "And fuck you! How could you do this to Naruto? He's the one that inherited your brother's and fiancé's will!"

"The will that will be his death, as it was theirs, as it was every single one of my predecessors'?" Tsunade replied in a sudden deathly calm. "You've no damn idea how much I regret this, Shizune. We learned almost nothing new, and I almost killed him. But to think of the greater good" she paused, breathing heavily, justifying her actions to herself just as much as she did to Shizune. "It's an insidious way of thinking. For the greater good you feel like you can justify anything".

"Then justify this!" However, the black-haired poison expert was having none of it. "He's your successor, damn it! Your kinsman! And yet you cut him up like a fucking fish at the market to see what colour his organs have!"

"You don't understand!" she shouted back, rage in her words, frustration paramount in her mind. "None of you do! This is a dangerous damn world, and all that matters is the power to stay alive! Why do you think I've spent my life drinking and gambling away the assets of my clan? I lacked the power to prevent my brother's and fiancé's deaths! No more – I will have the power to protect this village! I will be weak no more! That is my vow as Hokage!"

"You're just as much as a snake as Orochimaru" Shizune returned the sneer, and Tsunade was struck silent by the hatred in her words. "I should have seen it before. You're weak, and no matter what you'll always tell yourself, you'll always be weak".

And so, saying nothing further, Shizune moved hastily across the floor, gathering up the folder she had thrown and clutching it in her hand so hard that her knuckles turned white. She needed this... for assurance. If she had this then Tsunade wouldn't come after her when she went away. An insurance of her safety, that's what it was. And Shizune realised that she was thinking just like the head of her family.

"My surname is Shimura" Shizune suddenly said, and Tsunade flinched at the utterance. "I know my great-uncle would have done the same as you. But he's as dead as a doornail on the inside. I never expected this from you, not from you of all people". With that she moved towards the double doors of the office, stopping only shortly in the doorway. "I won't speak of this to the council or to Danzō" she said in a low voice. "I won't put Naruto through any worse than you already have. But if you make another damn move at him, I swear upon my ancestors' graves, I will kill you".

"Shizune-" Tsunade reached out, begged her to understand, but Shizune turned only her shoulder towards her, her tone icy cold.

"Consider my apprenticeship terminated, Senju-temae. We're through." she spat before she marched out the door, leaving the Hokage to stand alone in her office, staring unseeing out the window towards the faces of her betters carved into that far rock.

Then, slowly, she put her hands to her face and began to weep over what she had become.

* * *

… And scene! Thank you, ladies and gentlemen! Thank you!

* * *

 **A/N:** Well, a longer chapter as promised. I haven't been able to work as much on it as I would have liked, since I'm on massive amounts of drugs to prepare me for an upcoming jaw surgery. Apparently my wisdom teeth are causing all kinds of mischief, and needs to be extracted by a whole team of dentists and exorcists with fire and holy water.

Anyway, that's why this chapter took such time. Now, for those of you who are wondering:

Suiton - Rasenringu: it has the same name as Menma's technique from Naruto: Road to Ninja, but using the kanji _rin_ for parallel, next to or neighbour instead of the one for fear. Causes a massive indention of water, making the ground soggy and swamp like, trapping enemies or washing them away. Has the appearance of a hollow disk of water rapidly spinning, a Rasengan orb in the centre of it. Can be used as a saw at a close distance. The weight of the water spinning makes it very hard to deflect.

And for those of you who were wondering about the nature release affinities of the Konoha 11 and need a clear diagram over their respective affinities:

Doton: Shino, Sai,

Katon: Hinata, Shikamaru, Kiba, Ino

Raiton: Chouji

Suiton: Sakura

Fūton: Ten-Ten

If you've any issues with this, please make sure to notify me. Hinata's is a given, as is Shino's, Shikamaru's and Sai's, but the rest can change after your wishes. The idea of a Raiton Chouji sort of appeals to me, as it makes me think of the Shinto deity Raiden, the jovial lord of storms in Japanese mythology. Think of him as a sort of mix between Japanese Santa, Thor, and a rowdy drunk that stinks faintly of cheap bourbon and misery.

Well, I'll be trying to make the next chapter come up a little sooner. Cheerio, and as always:

Read and Review, and DFTBA!


	5. The Duty of Buddha

Well, I be skewered on a swordfish if it wasn't time for another chapter of the White Fox.

This chapter was going to be a short one... shows what I know. In the words of the wise: _quis sais-je_? What do I know? The answer to that question appears to be: fuck all.

Anyway, it's on to the next chapter. We're finally getting somewhere in the story, but this arc is long from over and we've just about barely begun.

The themesong for this chapter is _Shot in the Dark_ by the Dutch band Within Temptation.

And with nothing left to say, I give you... the chapter!

* * *

Chapter 5: The Duty of Buddha

* * *

This wasn't how he would have chosen to die.

Asuma gritted his teeth as blood poured from his lips, his stomach rent through, his body lashed with horrid agony that had seemed to appear our of nowhere. Across from him, facing him in a mad cackle, was a demon in the shape of a man, his skin morphed to resemble a stylised skeleton under the pressure of his cursed chakra. That bastard...

He couldn't die there. He wasn't allowed to die. He had students to teach, people to protect-

"Maybe I should end it all now!" the man called Hidan boomed out an insane stream of spittle-splattered laughter, worked up into a frenzy as he held a pointed telescopic baton to the skin over his heart. "A single thrust – and then the most exquisite pain imaginable!" His vision was blurring, and the ground was beginning to seem to grow around him... How odd, he thought at first before his knees struck earth. Huh. His legs had lost their strength. How many times had he seen that happen to the men he himself had killed?

Maybe it was a matter of cosmic justice, of karmic balance. But if such was the case...

If he had to die for his sins, why did it have to be now? Because he had never been so happy before? Because he had never been so content? Were the powers that be truly so cruel to rob a man of life just after he had finally found his place in the world?

He heard someone cry, but it was faint, oh so faint, so distant. Was it him?

No, it was a woman's voice... Kurenai-chan? Was it she who was crying? But she was so far away...

" _How about Ichigo?" he wondered as he held her in his arms, the night settled around them like a heavy blanket as they lay in her bed, his hands upon her bare stomach and her head leant against his shoulder. It was a couple of nights before he went away on that last mission, and they were discussing one of the most important things in the world._

" _Ichigo? Like strawberry?" she wondered with a chuckle, amused._

" _No, like protector, and first" he grumbled softly and kissed her neck, making her squirm._

" _Ah! That tickles!" she protested and swatted at him. "And no! Don't you know? Kubo-sensei, my friend in Karakura-sho, already named his kid that. We can't call our kid the same things as we'll call his playmates!"_

" _You sure it's gonna be a lad?" he wondered with an arched eyebrow. "I mean, it might just as easily be a lass, don't you know?"_

" _No, I can tell" she answered him and turned her face upwards for a quick kiss, a wish he readily obeyed. "It's a boy; I can feel it in my heart. He's strong, too, like his da"._

" _Hehe" Asuma chuckled gleefully. He was going to have a son. Here he was, with a family in the making, and the clan elders could go fuck themselves with the sharpest and most splintery pole they could find if they had anything to say against him marrying Kurenai. "How about Hiruzen?" he supplied reluctantly, and she shook her head once she saw the face he made._

" _What, and call him Sarutobi Hiruzen the Second? No, I don't think so. Besides, you've lived long enough in your father's shadow" she laid her hands atop his upon her stomach. "I don't want that for our son, too"._

" _Then what should we name him?" he asked, and she chuckled again at his worried look._

" _He's more than five months away, so you can relax. We'll have plenty of time to figure something out". She turned around and looked deeply in his eyes, smiling softly. "I love you, Asuma" she whispered._

" _I love you too, Kurenai-chan" he replied and kissed her deeply._

"Asuma-sensei!" that crying was back, and it was louder now, and closer. By the voice... it wasn't Kurenai-chan, was it? No, it was...

"Ino" he muttered and opened his heavy eyes, trying to sit up. But the pain, the pain that bubbled through him and went up his throat to spill over his lips so warm and red and bloody, that pain stopped him before he could move more than half an inch, and he was pressed down flat upon the ground with a heavy hand.

"He's coming to!" Was that Chouza speaking? No... it was the son that took so much after his father, Chouji. How strong he had gotten.

"Keep him still, damn it!" Ino cried, bent as she was over his midriff, tears streaming from her eyes. "Don't you dare die on me, sensei!" She had become so beautiful since he first saw them, so strong and proud, and he was proud to have been her teacher.

He was so proud of all of them.

"Shikamaru" he grunted, and a cough wreaked his body when the pain blossomed in his chest after the word, and a friendly hand took his. Where was he? Had those two freaks in the Akatsuki managed to get past him and hurt his prize student?

"Don't worry, sensei" rough hand gripped his own powerless one, the Nara features leaning in over him. Shikaku? No, Shikamaru. He looked so much like his da it was uncanny. And he was just as clever as that gloomy old spod, if not more so. All of them, the best of them, the best version of Ino-Shika-Cho that had ever come to life.

And they were his students. They were all alive, and they were his students. But why were they all crying, even Shikamaru? He struggled up a bit despite the pain and looked down at his midriff to see... well, it looked a lot more like freshly minced meat than it had before, he could give it that. Several of his internal organs must have been damaged beyond repair, yet he was still alive. Truly, that was a testament to Ino's great skill as a medic.

But his time was up. He had seen enough injuries to know that his were, beyond all doubt, fatal.

He didn't want to die. He had something to live for now, a woman and a child on the way, and they needed him. He needed to be there for them, and there was so much he wanted to do. Watch his son say his first words and take his first step, make a little sister with and marry his mother, living and laughing and being with both of them and any other children that might come. He needed to teach his son to fight, so that he could take care of his mother and his family in his stead, but...

But his time was up, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Don't, Ino" he said simply, and she looked to him, tears in her eyes. "Don't waste your energy. I'm done for already".

"Asuma-sensei-" Chouji whispered.

"Don't say shite like that, sensei!" Ino growled through her tears. "Help is on the way-"

"Unless you've got another liver on standby, I'll be dead within the hour" he smiled at her, somehow. It's was pretty funny when you thought about it. Here he was, the son of the Sandaime, lying dying upon a roof-top of some stinking toilet rest-stop in the middle of fucking nowhere. It seemed it was he, and not the clan elders who had been nagging on him to cut the rebellious act and straighten up, who had been right all along. Blood didn't mean shit. He couldn't help but chuckle. In the end, he had the last laugh.

"Sensei!" Shikamaru pleaded as that chuckle became a ragged cough, blood bubbling thick and red at the corner of his mouth. "We've driven those Akatuski pricks off, so you'll just have to hold on! We won't let you die on us-"

"Would you just fuck up already?" Asuma drawled weakly, and the Nara fell silent, trembling like an aspen leaf, the tears running thick down his face. "I don't have long now, and I've important shit to say. Last will and some profound fucking words and... all that jazz".

"Sensei-" Ino pleaded.

"If you're telling me not to cuss, lass, then shove off" he coughed again as he looked at her in good nature. "I'm bloody dying here, so cut me some damn slack. Anyway, you guys can take what you want of my tools and weapons and stuff. I won't need it where I'm going". Or at least he really fucking hoped so. He had been fighting all his life, and if the afterlife was the same then he would promptly fly up to God and kick his fucking teeth in. He had earned his rest, and damned if he was going to keep soldiering on after he died. That would just be depressing.

"Light a fag for me, will you?" Asuma looked to Shikamaru. "They're in my breast pocket, and my lighter's in my left belt pouch. I was gonna quit but... I feel like one last smoke".

"Sure, sensei" Shikamaru wasn't complaining for once and soon a cigarette was stuck between his lips and lit, but he didn't have the breath to huff on it.

"Cheers, lad" he spoke as the pain rocketed through him, but he didn't grunt or moan. He was shinobi, and he had always been shinobi, so a little pain wasn't going to be the end of him.

And wasn't that a tragic turn of phrase?

"Hinata can keep the damn guitar" he forced out as he felt himself grow weaker. "All my other things... give them to Kurenai-chan... the deed to my apartment, the works... Ino". He was trying to tell her not to cry with his eyes, for she was the most beautiful flower of her generation and should always strive to be in the sunlight. "You're strong willed, and dependable. Chouji and Shikamaru, they are total arse-hatts. Keep them in line. And... don't let Sakura beat you; be it in Ninjutsu, or romance."

"Chouji" he looked up at the pillar of a man, the titan with the massive mane of wild hair who had grown to be one of the best fighters of his generation. "You're a kind man who cares for his comrades. That's why… you'll become a shinobi more powerful than everyone else. Be more confident in yourself. And… maybe diet a little".

"And Shikamaru" the dark haired genius seemed to sob the hardest, and he felt for the lad, knowing that, in some ways, he would be the one to mourn the most. "You're so smart... and you have great sense as a shinobi. You could definitely become Hokage. But... you're too lazy... You'd probably hate it. I never even beat you once at shogi…" There was something else, wasn't there? It was getting bright beyond the clouds, and it was getting hard to see. "And… Remember what I said about the King?"

"Yes, sensei" Shikamaru nodded hard, his voice as if coming across a great distant, faint and echoing. Everything seemed so distant.

"That 'King' are the unborn children who will grow up to take care of the leaf after the rest of us are gone". It was so bright, that blinding light. Did it burn? It couldn't possibly hurt less than this, and he was so tired of fighting. "Look after Kurenai and... tell her..." What about their future together? Was he just going to leave it behind? Future, future... Was there something in that light ahead? No, no shapes, the light was too strong for it. "Mirai... that's a good name".

And as the three young shinobi watched their dying teacher the heavens opened up and the rain fell down like the judgement of the ancestors upon their heads, drowning the world in sorrow. As the water fell in drops a few landed on the end of that cigarette, and though it glowed defiantly, strongly, it sputtered.

And then it died.

* * *

"The onus upon Buddha is to die".

Kakashi stood tall before the many that had gathered onto Sarutobi Asuma's funeral after the Hokage, her attendant Shizune strangely absent from the crowd of black-garbed mourners that stood at the Konoha cemetery, and the current Sarutobi clan head had their say. They had each held a short speech, Tsunade about Asuma's prowess as a Shinobi and Sarutobi Yokari about the heritage of the man and a few short anecdotes about his childhood. In the end it fell to Kakashi to stand and speak for him as a friend and comrade, for Gai had declined to, saying he didn't feel "youthful" enough, and Kurenai was too distraught to speak for longer than a sentence at a time.

"The onus upon Buddha is to die" he repeated as he stood upon the platform of the Konoha fire sculpture, the monument to everyone that had fallen in battle and gone to become the blessed ancestors of the will of fire, as their fathers and mothers before them, as their sons and daughters after them. "Asuma-san told me that, once. He didn't say if it was his father who had said it, or if it had been something his old monk buddy had used to say. He certainly didn't say it firstly. Asuma was many things, but he wasn't that smart".

The Sarutobi elders in attendance, Asuma's aunts and uncles and kinsmen who were standing at the rightmost part of the crowd, making up a good fifth of the gathered people, bristled at that, but Kakashi ignored them. In the forefront of the crowd stood the people most precious to Asuma while he was alive: the children of the Sarutobi clan, among them the crying Konohamaru, and just behind him was the Konoha 11 and his students. Kurenai, of course, stood beside Ino and Chouji, leaning on them for support, her stomach noticeably round and pregnant. Shikamaru was nowhere to be seen.

"Asuma wasn't clever" Kakashi went on. "He smoked, he was rude, he cursed all the time, and for a career soldier he wasn't very good at following orders. He was a little short tempered in his younger days. He rebelled against his father and went to join the Guardian Twelve despite the wishes of his clan". A clan that, now upon the death of that man, had seemingly forgotten all their disgust for his disobedient and rebellious ways.

"Asuma did say though that the onus upon Buddha is always to die. Only after death can the enlightened break the wheel of samsara and attain mohksha, true oneness with the divinity of the universe. But one must live before one dies. And only after death can the deeds of one's life be truly measured. Only when life is over can we judge if it was a good one".

"Asuma wasn't clever, but he was wise and had good instincts as a shinobi and a fighter. He smoked, but he always trained hard and never wallowed in luxury or gluttony. He was rude, but he was a great teacher. He cursed all the time, but children loved him. He wasn't good at following orders, but he never abandoned a comrade and never gave up. He joined the Guardian Twelve, he became jounin at age seventeen, and he's left behind a sterling military record, a list of operations, deeds and successful missions longer than even mine. Asuma lived life to the fullest, and he died protecting what he cared for the most. His will lives on, in his clan, in his students, in his friends, and so his, dreams, his hopes, his Will of Fire, never dies. Thank you".

And so he bowed and stepped off the podium in silence, giving way for the priests for more prayer and ritual. It was a beautiful service, the sun was high in the clear sky, and the world was too beautiful that day for such a sad occasion. There was only sore spot on the entire procedure, the Konoha 11 could agree as they left the service clad in black funeral garb.

"Shikamaru should've been there" Naruto grumbled and kicked a rock irritably down the dirt road leading into Konoha proper, gritting his teeth against the unfairness of the universe. "That lazy bastard... I'll kick his arse!"

"Bloody aye!" Kiba agreed, to which Sakura gave the both of them a boff across the bonce.

"Show some damn respect!" she snapped at the two of them, raising a threatening fist as Ino and Chouji walked on ahead in silence, not wanting to talk or do anything but have their sensei back beside them. "How do you think Chouji-kun and Ino-pig feel, huh? Shannaro!"

"Sakura-chan" Hinata laid a careful hand upon the raging girl's arm as the two rowdy boys rubbed their now hurting heads. "It is okay to be sad. Everyone is sad in different ways, you know? Shikamaru-kun too... though he doesn't how to deal with it".

"Yo". A voice from the rooftops turned the attention of the youngsters upwards to see Kakashi perched upon a windowsill, sitting crouched and looking emotionlessly at them with his one working eye. "You lot wanna get something to eat? Gai's having dinner at his place tonight, and you're all invited".

And as the students looked to each other and nodded Kakashi sped away, intent on answering a single question: where had Shizune been?

The answer was deceptively simple: drinking.

After Shizune had left Tsunade some days ago she had taken to the bottle so hard she had fallen in, and once in the bottle she had neglected to climb out of it. Devestate by what she and her teacher had done she thought long and hard about leaving Konoha forever and never looking back on it... but what would have been the point? She had never been much for the wandering lifestyle and only gone along with it because of... No, she'd not even think that name. Not now, not ever again. So she stayed in the hidden village out of apathy rather than anything else, and bought herself a bottle of every kind of sake on offer from the local brewery.

She had never known there to be so many different kinds of sake. Different grain polish ratio, different flavour, different consistency, different texture and colour, different alcohol proof and alcohol per millilitre content -

So many. So she locked herself in her room and, as she wondered as what to hell to do with her life after the breaking with her teacher, she resolved to drink all of it. Not at once – ancestors watch over her, never that! - for she was a medic and she knew that drinking that much would kill her. Though now, as her sitting area was a stinking mess of discarded bottles and thrown aside microwave meals and instant ramen cups, she was debating internally why suicide was such a bad idea.

"I mean, it's a pretty shit world" she slurred, speaking to herself while gesticulating wildly with the bottle in her hand. "Only the biggest cocks get happy endings, you know? And all the rest of us... all the rest of us have to, have to, like, eat shit. All the ones that give a fuck about honour and dignity and the Will of Fire get to... get to sod off, you know? All the ones like Akatsuki and uncle Danzō-temae and Orororchimary win, and the good guys keep losing. What's really the point of it all?"

"It's the only battle worth fighting, Shizune-chan" said a voice from her window, and she flashed up to her feet and reached for her senbon, but as drunk as she was she only managed to crash to the floor in a tangle of dirty clothes and spilled liquor. She looked up to see none other than... Hatake, was it? She had been his upperclassman in the Academy, but even she had heard of his excellence by then. And now, so long after, he was a bit of a legend with a mixed record. On one hand he had reared a saviour; on the other a traitor. On one hand he had mastered almost every Ninjutsu technique known to man; on the other he had lost everyone and everything he had ever cared about.

"Whaddaya want?" she wondered with as much dignity she could muster... which, was to say, none. "And howdya get in here?"

"Must have been some trick Anko-chan taught me, taught to her by Orororchimary-" he stifled a chuckle at that, resulting in her pouting at him as he climbed in through the window, but when he did stand on the floor of her home he looked a little... lost. "I bloody hate funerals" he muttered.

"Someone died?!" Shizune exclaimed in slurred surprise.

"Aye. Sarutobi Asuma, Sandaime-sama's son. Akatsuki did if, in case you wondered. But I've a feeling those bastards won't be running around for much longer". The tone of his voice when he said that... he knew something. She could feel it.

"What makes you say that?" she asked groggily and sunk back down to her couch, looking at him hard.

"Let's just say the time has come for the stag to grow his first set of horns... once he pulls his head from out of his arse. You don't mind me sitting down, do you?"

"Do whatever you want, you riddle-spouting bellend" she waved derisively in the air. "Seems everyone else does that anyway. Everyone wants something, and it's usually not good, is it? Not in this shinobi world of ours". And so Kakashi sat down opposite her, careful not to sit on... what seemed to be last night's dinner. "So... whadya want?"

"Well, we all know how I hate small talk, so I'll get right on the heart of the matter. I noticed you haven't been at our" he weighed his words and kept the more apt names to himself "esteemed hokage's presence for the last few days".

"Whaddabout it?" she frowned at him hard, wondering what he was on about.

"May I suffice to guess that your time serving her is effectively terminated?" She glared at him and his newly found eloquence, and so he read her answer upon her face and nodded. " _So ka_. I thought so. And may I further guess that your departure from the warmth of her proverbial bosom-"

"Hah!" Shizune snorted, laughing so hard she nearly fell out of her seat. "You said bosom!"

"-is due to some incident involving a certain apprentice of mine?" And with the conclusion of that sentence her laughter died instantly.

"You know" Shizune seemed to sober up in an instant at the memory, a mask of anger going over her face. "You know, and you knew, and you did fuck all to stop it-"

"And you don't know what the fuck you're talking about, Shimura" he snapped back with surprising vehemence. "If you think I stood by the wayside idly and let her eviscerate my student without trying to stop it, you're sadly mistaken as of to my character. I begged of her, upon my knees and my soul, to not do what she did. But the thought of losing another lineage like her grandfather has driven her to the extreme, I fear".

"Well, your fears are more than bloody realised, mate" Shizune took another swig of the bottle in her hand and gave him a long look that was a little mournful. "She just sits in her office all day, pouring over Ororo- argh! - Orochimaru's old research. She's grown obsessed with making this village strong. Just like my great-uncle. Just like her old team-mate".

"Yes, indeed. She no doubt thinks she's doing what's best for the village, just like Danzō does. But they fail to grasp the central problem, do they?" Shizune cocked her head to the side as she wondered what he was on about now. "The office of Hokage... one needs to be a very special person to take it. One needs to crave the position and the power that comes with it, but one needs to be of strong character to attain it. And once wearing that Hokage's hat... one must have the convictive fortitude to not let the demands of the office make oneself change one's morality and make one lose one's moral centre".

"Yeah yeah, so she's been corrupted by the burdens of leadership – what of it?" Shizune drawled and took another swig of that bottle, emptying it swiftly. "Power corrupts".

"Not always" he suggested, and she stiffened in her seat, her ears perking up to hear him. "Shodaime, Niidaime, Sandaime, Yondaime... none of them lost their heads in this matter. Shodaime never gave up on his dreams. Niidaime curtailed the executive powers of his office and the clans just to make sure no one abused their power. Sandaime kept the hat for nearly fifty years to make sure he had a worthy successor. Yondaime sealed the Kyūbi beast away in his own son, not wanting another parent to suffer through his sacrifice. And all of them gave their lives for this village and its people".

"Are you saying that only men should be Hokage, and women shouldn't?"

"What I am saying is that it takes a special kind of person to become a _good_ Hokage. Gender, or age, are irrelevant. What they need is that fire that burns within - a true will of fire, not the pale one that does little more than glower inside of us".

"Whadya want, Kakashi?" she wondered finally as she pulled her hand down her face, the discussion exhausting her.

"In simple terms?" He took a deep breath, wondering if he should really do it. If he said that, there was no going back, not ever. But after what had happened, what would happen unless he did it, what choice did he have? "I want Tsunade out of her office, and her hat upon a head that deserves it".

"You" Shizune didn't even notice the bottle slipping out of her grasp and clattering to the floor. "You speak – you speak of treason!"

"Aye, I am" he nodded, outwardly calm but inwardly surging. _This is to protect your son, sensei, and to carry on your legacy_. "I make no qualms about this, and believe me when I say that this breaks my heart. But she needs to go out of that office. If I die and meet sensei in the Pure Land... I couldn't meet his eyes if I just stood by and did nothing while his son is reduced to chattel".

"Your heart is in the right place" she nodded slowly, and a wave of relief washed through him. "But who's going to take the hat after she's gone? You?"

"No" he shook his head. That would defeat his purpose, for he knew that he himself hadn't the strength to resist the temptations of power. "Not I. Yondaime's true heir, and the heir to his burning will of peace and glory. His son should be Hokage".

Shizune didn't know what to say to that? What did one say to that? The boy was reckless, heedless, disobeyed his betters, disrespected his elders, broke almost every rule in the book, jested and jibbed and strutted like a rutting cock! He was far from wise enough to become Hokage. "Naruto's sixteen!" she protested at last.

"And he's been training for this his entire life. He's been wanting this since he was old enough to dream. He's the son of the Yondaime, our greatest hero. He holds in him the greatest weapon of the shinobi world. He's the first in Konoha to be born with a Ninjutsu-type Kekkei Genkai since Shodaime". Kakashi leaned in over the table that stood between them, his one healthy eye looking deep into hers, imploring her with his gaze. "Don't you see? This is too much to be a mere coincidence. I'm hardly a faithful man... but even I can see this is the will of the ancestors. This is the Mandate of Heaven at work".

"Kakashi-" she fell back in her seat, struggling beneath the words he heaped on her and how much sense they made to her alcohol-addled mind. "Why now?" she wondered. "You've had weeks to do this, and if you had gone to other people with these... these conspiracies of treachery... you would have brought them. Are there... are there others who feel like you?"

"I don't know yet. I've been" Kakashi thought back and bit his lip behind the cover of his mask. "I've been thinking, making plans, wondering, debating and not having the courage, but... Asuma was my friend, and he believed in action. He wasn't one for waiting unless it was part of a strategy. He believed in doing what was right. And as his friend... as his friend I have inherited his will. I won't stand by in silence any longer".

"What do you need me for?" Shizune wondered, a little frightened, a little concerned that he might have something overly nefarious planned despite him spouting words of good intent. "Why come to me?"

"Because you know her" he answered, moving closer to her, sitting by her side, and as heavy as their words had been on her she could do nothing but slump forwards limply. "You worked in her office for years. You know her allies, you know the political landscape. You know how the wind blows in the Daimyo's presence. I need you to work with me. Together we can overthrow her and put that hat upon the right person".

"You're asking me to betray my master" she whispered.

"No" he corrected softly. "I'm asking you to realise that she's betrayed us all".

"I" What did she do? He was asking her to chose between... between... It was one thing to quit the service of her teacher, another entirely to go against her and betray her. No, she could not do this... but wasn't this the right thing to do? She just didn't know anymore.

"I'm not asking you to decide now" Kakashi told her casually as he leant back and away in the couch, giving her room to breathe. "In fact, there's a bit of a get together to night at Gai's flat. We're celebrating Asuma's life, you know? Naruto will be there. Just go with us, and see how he interacts with his friends. You will know then that I'm right".

"Kakashi-san" she protested childishly "I'm dirty, and I stink! I haven't had a wash in four days, and I've been drinking non-stop since-"

"I've got just the cure for that" he waved her concerns away. "Leave it to me. So... are you coming with or not?"

In the end, she agreed, if only to humour him and get him out of her face so she could keep drinking herself into oblivion.

Kakashi's ministrations were nothing but tender. She wondered if that was a pattern with the man. He all but dragged her into the kitchen and almost forced her to eat copious amounts of food he made from the leftover supplies in her fridge, strange and no doubt foreign dishes made to make her rehydrate in record time. He was chatting amicably all the while about nonsense things, as if their previous weighty conversation had never happened, all while imploring her to drink plenty of water – so much that it wasn't even funny.

But what came after that was worse.

He washed her. At first he just shepherded her into the bathroom, coaxed and coerced her out of her clothes before he shoved her into the shower and turned his back, expecting her to clean herself. But the situation was just... too surreal, and before she knew it he sighed, inclined his head, pulled his trousers off his body and his shirt and flak-jacket over his head and went in after her, grumbling constantly as he did. He still wore his underwear, and his mask for some reason, as he begun to wash her, but to her surprise nothing of sordid nature happened. He lingered just as long a time on her nethers and her breasts as he did upon her hands or her forearms, and as he muttered about how much of a nuisance she was she was starting to get a little... annoyed. She didn't fancy him or anything – ancestors preserve her, of course not! - but she did steal a glance towards his underwear and didn't see even a hint of a rise there. He seemed to get as much excitement from watching her lithe, naked and soapy body coiling under the water of the shower head as he got from watching paint dry.

Was he gay? No she had seen him with Anko from time to time, the snake-woman leaning over him in a possessive way with an arm thrown over his shoulder. No, she knew the two of them had a carnal relationship sometime in the past. So what the hell was wrong with her?

In her vexed state she turned around and yanked hard on his mask, wanting to pull it down and see his smug damn face before she punched the daylights out of him. What she saw... was another mask, a slightly deeper colour of blue from the first one. She gaped at him and pawed for it, but he jumped away with a hidden grin.

"You know" he seemed to smirk with his eye "my cute little gennin would do that too. Everyone seems so obsessed with how they look for some reason, and since I don't they seem to obsess about me even more. They too got pretty surprised when all they saw was this". He gestured longways to his under-mask before he reached down and pulled up the over-mask to rest over it. "In case you wonder... no, I'n not going to stick my cock in your arse or anything like that. Can we just hurry and get this over with so we can go home to Gai soon?"

"Uhm" she stared after him as he stepped out of the shower, shaking her head at herself. "I must be mad" she muttered.

And for some reason she hoped she was right.

* * *

Say what you will about Maito Gai, and many often did, but he was a star at parties.

As he showed people into his large and modern flat on the northern side of Konoha, tray of appetisers on one hand and a broad smile upon his face, he would chuckle in his characteristically bombastic way and urge everyone to have a good time. The place had an open floor-plan, and the white and often spartan walls were sparsely decorated with fine and classically inspired wood-prints of flowers and mountains and expertly drawn kanji, all done by his own hand. Gai, after all, had always considered himself a warrior poet, and his tastes were broad and inclusive in all things.

"Hinata-san!" he boomed as he opened the door to find a flinching Hinata there, dressed in a simple lavender summer dress and accompanied by two other Hyūga women, one of which was carrying Asuma's... well, it was her guitar now, she supposed, and the other carrying gifts for the host. "Glad you could make it! Who are these lovely young women?!"

"Hiroko and Honoka, Gai-sensei. They are my... kinswomen". Well, Hiroko was her father's maternal cousin's second niece to a half sister and her mother's paternal cousin both, and Honoka was a an adopted child of a cousin who was in actuality the sole descendant of some ancient Hyūga offshoot clan – a cadet branch of the main family – who had been included in the branch house after her family was slain in some awful bloody struggle long ago. "Father insisted that I bring my handmaidens, since I'm now heir to the family. I hope it is no inconvenience for-"

"Of course not!" Gai grinned and showed the three of them inside, taking the finely wrapped bottle of sake from out of Honoka's hands. "Excellent! Great aging, and magnificent colouring! Thank you heartily! Now, welcome to my humble home, and do please seat yourselves!" He gestured, of course, to the long table erected in the middle of his home along the entire length of it, around which many people, both close friends and distant acquaintances of Hinata's, sat upon the tatamied floor with legs folded beneath them.

Chouji and Ino were there, their black kimonos untied to show colourful clothes beneath, Ino idly drinking and speaking low words with Sakura while Chouji, being an Akimichi, helped himself eagerly to the buffet Gai had provided. And many of the Konoha 11 were there, excepting Sai who had been forgotten since he wasn't very good at parties, with Shino and Kiba making room for Hinata and her ladies in waiting at the far end of the table next to Ten-Ten, Neji and Lee, who had for some reason been bolted to the floor with long ropes and heavy chains. Opposite them were an opening of four empty seats on the sides of which sat Kakashi and a dishevelled looking Shizune, with Anko looking peeved to the right of them, and Yamato along with Kurenai and Izumo and Kotetzu, former team-mates of Asuma's, and Kurenai's old father Yūhi Shinku next to Ebisu. Only a couple of people were missing: the Konoharmu corps, Shiakmaru who had been absent all day, and-

"Sakura-chan" Hinata wondered softly as she sat down, her handmaidens to either side of her. "Where is Naruto-kun?"

"Probably training with team Ebisu" Sakura supplied after a hesitant look at the two Hyūga ladies she was unfamiliar with. "Seriously, that boy... he does nothing but train all day long! Eating and training and eating and training... It's a pretty shoddy boyfriend you've got, ne?"

"Boyfriend?!" Neji jumped to his feet, face paling in brotherly rage. "Hinata-sama, don't tell me-!"

"Please, niisan, everyone, calm down" Hinata blushed as she made calming gestures with her hands. "I'm not together with a Naruto-kun in that way". _At least_ , she added internally, _not yet_. "We're just friends, like Sakura-chan and Ino-chan, yes?"

"Why the bloody hell aren't you two shagging yet?" Ino drawled with a frown and downed another cup of sake. She was depressed, and when people get depressed they usually see the only recourse as being alcohol. "You've been in love with him for ages! Why aren't you all over that blonde stuff like oil on water?" She was obviously in dire emotional straits, grumpy and dour, and she was speaking a little too loudly for comfort, making many eyes around the room fall on Hinata as the conversation silenced gradually.

"Ino-chan!" Gai boomed. "That's rude!"

"Ino!" Chouji snapped, rumbling dangerously like thunder.

"I just want to know-" the blonde protested, but in the end Hinata cleared her throat and brought attention back to her.

"I-" she could almost feel a sob rising in her throat. "It's true. I love him. I've always loved him. But..." even after all that had happened between them, even despite the kiss she had laid upon his cheek, he had not said a word to her since that day, focused in training as he was. "I don't think... he doesn't see me the same way. He loves Sakura-chan. He doesn't-" there was a hitch in her throat, and she could feel something cold against her cheek. Strange... she raised her hand to touch it and it came away wet? Was she crying? Silently Hiroko handed her a paper tissue with which she could preserve her dignity, the attendant fixing Ino with a harsh stare.

"Hinata-chan, I-" Ino, at least, had the presence of mind to look guilty. "I didn't mean it like that. I didn't know..." Suddenly a thought occurred to her, and she turned hard towards Sakura, eyes aglare. "You've been leading him on, haven't you, forehead?!"

"Bollocks! He's my team-mate!" Sakura responded in a manner most sharp. "I wouldn't ever do that! And besides" she crossed her arms over her chest and looked away "he's not my type. And I sure as hell aren't his, you should know. Ever since he's got back from training with the super-pervert he haven't asked me on a date once. The only girls he's been interested in have been the ones with stonking great knockers, and, well" she gestured to her own chest, flat as it was.

"Well, you certainly don't have that!" Kiba tried to help, and was for his efforts soon pummelled into what resembled paste upon Gai's floor. With Sakura's assurances and the tension around them lifting Hinata gradually came into a good mood. The party seemed to get along well, and after another or so hour the man she had been inquiring about finally showed his face.

"Gai-sensei!" he cried as he slammed open the apartment door.

"Naruto-kun!" Gai boomed in reply, and many clutched their ears in pain as the two loudest shinobi in all of Konoha began conversing. "Where have you been? We've been waiting eagerly for you!"

"Sorry!" he roared back and gestured behind him, at which three kids at the age of twelve tumbled over each other into the doorway, landing in a pile. "I took the corps for zenzei! I wanted to cheer them up-attebayo!"

"Has he taken care of you, cute students?!" Gai boomed as he pulled the kids up to their feet, Udon, Moegi and Konohamaru smiling at him.

"Of course!" Konohamaru answered just as loudly as Naruto and Gai, making Moegi roll her eyes at him. "We went training, and Naruto-niisan was showing us the Rasen-"

"That's a secret!" his redheaded team-mate hissed as she stepped hard on the Sarutobi prince's foot. "Thank you for having us, Gai-san" she smiled cutely up at their host, who laughed in amused accord and showed them in. Naruto and the kids, of course, took the only seats available to them, sitting down on the floor opposite Hinata and her handmaidens. The leader of the four let his blue eyes flow over the Hyūga women before his eyes snapped to Hinata, taking in her dress and the ornate way her hair had been put up in a knot.

"Hinata-chan" he smiled carefully as he rubbed the back of his head. "You're really pretty-attebayo".

"He's being very forward, Hinata-sama" Honoka whispered in her mistress's ear. "Should I remove him from your presence?"

"Please don't" Hinata blushed and whispered from out of the corner of her mouth.

"It's the one she's been pining for, Honoka-nee" Hiroko informed her sister in arms around Hinata's back. "We're just supposed chaperone them, not drive him away".

"Affirmative, Hiroko-kohai" Honoka nodded curtly and looked to Naruto, giving him the once over but doing little else.

"So" he didn't really know what to say as Konohamaru and the others were distracted by Chouji and Kiba's bickering argument over who could beat whom in arm-wrestling. "You're both Hyūga too, right? You've got the eyes for it". Hiroko and Honoka both wore lavender headbands with the Hyūga clan crest flanked by twin roaring lions, Hinata's personal crest, around their brows to mask their cursed seals, but otherwise they could have been as different as night and day excepting their Byakugan eyes.

Hiroko was slightly taller than Hinata, slender and broad of shoulder, dressed in a modified and shortened shinobi uniform with a pair of combat sickles mounted on her back, while Honoka was short, sullen and stocky, her muscled body wrapped in a simple but functional lavender yukatta and the hilt of a jian, a Chinese straightsword meant for fencing, jutting from the wide red obi that was keeping her clothes tied together. "You're Hinata-chan's relatives?" Both of them looked to him, Honoka severely and Hiroko amusedly, in silence for the longest time, and as Naruto was beginning to sweat to turned his eyes to Hinata. "So... what's up with them?"

"They are my handmaidens, Naruto-kun" she informed with a slight smile, and explained further when it was clear he didn't understand. "They are my... personal servants and bodyguards. They're... not allowed to talk to you unless they absolutely have to".

"I thought Neji was your bodyguard" he questioned, to which she shook her head.

"Niisan used to be my protector, but since I'm the heir to the clan again he's been transferred to Hanabi-chan's security detail. Well, he's more of her private tutor now, I guess". She reached for her glass of water, but Honoka flashed forwards and got it for her, running a current of chakra through it to test it for unknown substances before her mistress drank from it.

"Aye, I heard that you became clan heir again-attebayo" Naruto nodded thoughtfully, deciding to ignore the two ladies in waiting as thoroughly as they were ignoring him. "Congrats on that, by the way. Uhm... what does that mean, now again?" She looked at him quizzically at that, and he scratched his head, a little ashamed. "I didn't pay very much attention in class when they were talking about clans and politics and history stuff. I was thinking about jutsu and being Hokage-attebayo".

"Do you... do you want me to teach you a little about my clan, in that case?" she wondered timidly as Kiba, unbeknownst to both her and Naruto, lost soundly at arm-wrestling against the embiggened arm of the Akimichi heir.

"I'd... I'd like that" Naruto replied just as shyly, and from aside Shino bent down and whispered to a staring Konohamaru.

"It is truly frustrating, is it not?" he asked levelly, and Konohamaru nodded in full accord.

"It's like watching two wallflowers on promnight at the Academy-kore" the young Sarutobi grumbled.

"Well, have you heard about the NaruHina Alliance?" Shino asked and pulled up a card from his inner pocket, handing it to Konohamaru with an intent look behind his glasses. "We are a small group of concerned friends who seek to push the two together".

"'For Konohagakure no sato's cutest couple to be'?" Konohamaru read the slogan on the orange and lavender card. "Founder and chairman... Inuzuka Kiba?"

"He is quite vocal about his 'alpha couple'" Shino confided, to which Konohamaru nodded with great interest. "Meetings are on Thursdays at the Inuzuka compound. The honoured chairman's mother and sister are ardent supporters of our cause. There is, of course, a small membership fee, but it is quite manageable. Please pass the word onto your friends, Konohamaru-san". Meanwhile the two were discussing the membership fees to the N/HA Hinata spoke to Naruto about her clan, her handmaidens providing visual aid to demonstrate key concepts and events.

"Our family was founded by Asura Hyūga, bastard son of Asura Hantomō and Kaito Mīwa. Hyūga was born with a third eye at the centre of his brow, a pale eye by which he could see everything beneath heaven. His power was so great that the Asura and the Kaito alliance eventually fractured in their conflict over him, and so he fled his family and sought refuge with the Senju clan. Eventually he married a Senju woman called Hikari, and together they had a son they named Hizashi and several daughters. As all his children had the Byakugan, and all his children's children, they fled the Senju to ensure their freedom and founded their own clan. I'm not boring you, Naruto-kun?" she wondered, for as she was speaking his attention was fixed solely on her, intent and amazed.

"I didn't know you memorised all that, Hinata-chan" he spoke then and licked his lips a little. "I mean, you've learnt all your clan's history? That's pretty awesome".

"I'm heir now" she shrugged and blushed under his praise "so I have to know everything. But thank you, Naruto-kun".

"How big is your clan?" he wondered with a curious look at the two handmaidens and Neji, who was reluctantly being fed dango by Ten-Ten. "I've seen lots of Hyūga people around, and I know about the whole" he mimed making a sun-cross upon his forehead "branch-clan thing, but how many are there?"

"Our clan has fourteen main house members, eighty-two branch house members, and eight elders from both houses that are, in effect, above such divisions" she explained with her attendants making pyramid gestures behind her. "These are the people considered members of the clan, though everyone born to Hyūga parents has our surname. There's another hundred and eleven people living at the compound who are Hyūga but do not posses the Byakugan. As our descendants they can still have children with the Byakugan though, so they mostly work as servants or artisans and farmers for the clan".

"But aren't the branch-clan servants?" Naruto wondered, and Hinata made a sort of shaking nod.

"Yes, and no, Naruto-kun. The Sokē, main house, are the ones that keep our secrets and our techniques. The Bunke, the branch house, are our soldiers and warriors, meant to fight for the clan and generate our income. As so, to keep our eyes from falling into enemy hands" Hiroko covered her face in soy sauce to mime being a dark-skinned kunoichi of Kumogakure, and made as if to sneak up on Honoka, who was covering her eyes with her hands "the Bunke are branded with a cursed seal, making them lose the Byakugan upon death". As Hiroko grabbed the shorter Hyūga Honoka pulled her headband down over her eyes so that the teal-green seal was exposed and fell to the ground, Hiroko falling to her knees beside her and mimed howling towards the heavens in frustration.

"So, it's like" Naruto searched for the appropriate word "castes, then? The elders at the top, the Sokē and Bunke in between, and those other guys at the bottom?"

"Senmin" Hinata supplied the word. "That's what they are called; 'Low citizens'. I don't like it. I'd prefer if they were called 'Non-combatants' instead, and that the Bunke didn't have to have the obedience seal upon their heads. I mean, every Hyūga should have a seal upon the back of the neck that would make their eyes explode and burn the optic nerve upon death- sorry" she shook her head and reminded herself of where she was. "I've just been thinking about it, and with some help from a Fūinjutsu master I've managed to create a prototype. But... I need to be clan head to vie for change".

"You'll be the best damn chief Hyūga out there, Hinata-chan!" Naruto enthused with a confident fist-pump. "I'm sure of it-attebayo!" A thought occurred to him, and he decided to ask her. "But what about other clans? I mean, no one but the Hyūga have the Byakugan, ya know? How do the other clans work?"

"That" Hinata smiled kindly "is a very big question, Naruto-kun. All clans are different, and all of them have different customs. But many of them are interconnected, you see. It's like a big bowl of ramen, and some straws are longer than others".

"I see!" he nodded eagerly. "How is your clan connected to, say, Kiba-temae's?"

"Kiba-kun's clan, the Inuzuka, are our allies" Hinata said while Hiroko and Honoka made overly happy smiles and hugged each other fondly. "And so are Shino-kun's, the Aburame. That's why I'm on a team with them. Shino's the oldest son of the Aburame matriarch, and Kiba's one of the candidates for chiefdom in the Inuzuka. But there are vassal clans too". Hiroko mimed sitting down and bowing subserviently to Honoka, who was making a regal gesture of dismissal. "They're like... you know how in a store some people work for a boss, and the boss gives them money in return? It's a bit like that. There are three clans outside of Konoha, the Saito, the Taketori and the Aya, who work for the Hyūga. They give us a bit of their yearly revenue in exchange for protecting them and representing them on the Konoha clan council".

"This is all very complicated" Naruto noted, to which Hinata agreed with a nod.

"Yes it is, Naruto-kun. Did... did you have any other questions?"

"Just two" he answered and put his hand to his chin. "First: why isn't Kiba heir to the Inuzuka? Doesn't he become heir? What do you mean with saying that he's a 'candidate for chiefdom'?"

"Because the Inuzuka are meritocratic. That means" she went on to explain as he looked oblivious again "that whosoever is best at fighting among them is leader, or, as they say, chieftain. Every single member of the clan is examined at birth and every second year thereafter by their clan elders, and if they have the right combination of genetic potential and physical fitness they become a 'candidate'. Any candidate can, if they want, challenge the chieftain for the leadership of the clan. Other than that their clan is very hierarchical, with positions handed out by the chieftain such as 'seer', 'healer' and others".

"That's pretty cool" Naruto nodded before he took a deep breath. "I had one last question". He looked hesitant, like he was about to take a leap off a cliff. "Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

Honoka and Hiroko, who were in the middle of theatrically interpreting his question as acting like two people in a fond embrace about to kiss, stopped dead and stared at him as if he had grown a second head. Around them conversation fell silent as the ones who heard his question turned and stared, wide of eye, Kiba looking like Christmas had come early that year.

Hinata herself, sitting as she was, didn't register the words at first. Had she misheard? She had to ask. "Pardon me, Naruto-kun" she wasn't stuttering, was she? "What did you say again?"

"I'm not saying you should be my girlfriend or anything-attebayo" Naruto went on hurriedly. "It's j-just that there's sort of been this- this tension between us lately, and... I wonder where we're at, ya know? I'm not asking you out or anything, I... I just want to know where you're coming from-attebayo".

"Naruto-kun" the inside of her mouth felt like it was full of sand, and on the silence in the room one could hear a pin drop. "C-could we please g-go somewhere else and talk a-about this?" She couldn't do this while the others were watching, while Neji was watching,

"Sure" he nodded, and alongside her he went into Gai's sectioned off kitchen, the two handmaidens looking lost as lambs after Hinata sharply told them to stay put and watch her guitar for her, and in the wake of the two leaving conversation slowly picked back up.

"My cute little gennin" Kakashi was sniffling, sounding as he was about to shed youthful tears in a most Gai-like manner "all grown up". He shifted his gaze and his eye fell on Anko most intently. "It makes me feel like romance".

"You're not going to have your girlfriend help you with that instead?" she hissed at him with a pointed cocking of the head towards where Shizune was sitting now, amongst Kurenai and Asuma's old team-mates. "You obviously don't need me anymore!"

"Of course I do" he furrowed his brow and leant in close to her, lowering his voice unto a husky whisper. "I'll always need my mistress". And to that she shivered. Both of them had to admit, reluctantly as they may, that their relationship wasn't exactly orthodox, but in the past they had been happy with it. And it hadn't actually ended, per se. They had just been busy with other things during the last couple of years and sort of stopped seeing each other so often. "She's just a friend to me" he assured her, a little submissively.

"You seem awfully chummy" she narrowed her eyes at him as she bit off a piece of dango from its spit, a trickle of sauce running down her lip. "You sure you're not out to tap that _medic_?" She pronounced the word "medic" like she would have "tapeworm".

"Of course not" she could tell he grinned wickedly beneath his mask, and she felt her anger rising a little.

"Of course not...?" she waited.

"Of course not, mistress Anko-sama" he corrected himself, and she nodded curtly.

"You need to be reminded of your lot in life" she demonstratively licked the sauce off her lip with a serpentine tongue, knowing full well that his entire attention was fixed on that small gesture. "But I'm busy tonight. See me tomorrow at seven sharp, my flat, and prepare for punishment".

"I can't wait" he grinned, and she narrowed her eyes at him. She was going to have to beat that jib out of him.

"Ha ha! In your face!" At another part of the party Kiba was standing tall, triumphantly pointing his finger at Neji across the table. "NaruHina for life, you NaruSaku vermin! Pay your dues and give me what you owe me!"

"What?!" Sakura sputtered from aside, choking on her drink.

"They made a bet after the second chunin exam" Ten-Ten rolled her eyes as she informed them of what was going on. "Whoever betted on the girl that Naruto would end up with would get an entire B-rank mission's pay from the other two".

"Two?!" Sakura stared around, wondering who the third person betting was.

"I really thought NaruIno had a chance" Chouji grumbled as he took out his wallet and peered into it forlornly while Neji fixed Kiba with the patented Hyūga stare.

"You will get your money, dog" he growled "after I kill that Uzumaki Hyōton prick for macking on my precious cousin!"

"How youthful!" boomed Gai in the meanwhile from the head of the long table, in tears over the beauty of it all. "Asuma-san! I wish you were here to see this with us! Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!" Lee, who had been participating in the drinking and thus was chained to the floor to keep him from going on a drunken battery that would destroy half of Konoha, concurred, and so Gai put a cup of sake to his lips for him.

"To Asuma!" he declared to the entire room, and as one they ceased their bickering and their squabbles and drank in unison to the memory of a fallen comrade. And in the kitchen Naruto flinched when he heard it, knowing he should have been out there with the others to celebrate. But he had to clear the air, as it were, and he needed to get the weight off his chest.

"Hinata-chan" he began softly, slowly, weighing every word. "I'm not stupid".

"I have never said that you were, Naruto-kun" she looked so fragile, so small as she stood by the counter next to Gai's stove, blushing deeply and pushing her fingertips together. She was so sure that he was going to reject her, and it tore her heart out.

"No, you haven't" he nodded then, knowing that she had always believed in him. "But everyone else does, don't they? I'm not the best with theories and stuff, and when I read letters just jumble together because I'm too bored. But I'm not stupid. I know you've been looking at me... that way".

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun" she apologised bleakly, and he shook his head, palming his face in frustration over his own ineptitude at getting what he wanted said.

"It's not that, Hinata-chan" he went. "I don't mind you looking. Really, I'm quite flattered-attebayo. But the brushing up against me, the almost kisses, the-" his voice trailed off as he laid his hand upon his cheek, the memory of her lips seemingly burnt into his skin. "It's fine, but I just... I don't know what to do".

"I see, Naruto-kun". She knew it. She was a sick pervert, and she had been forcing herself on him. He didn't want her advances, he didn't want her and-

"No, Hinata-chan, you really don't" he saw how down on herself she became, and he knew that she had misunderstood him once more. He didn't want to see her like that, but if he told her she would think he was some sort of disgusting lecher. But... "I think you're really pretty, Hinata-chan. And I kind of like the whole kiss-on-the-cheek-thing we have-attebayo. But... ".

"Naruto-kun" she looked up to him, her tears drying up, and she could see that his jaw was set hard, his hands shaking as he clenched them into fists. He... he wanted her? In _that_ way?

"I want to do stuff" he professed, and despite himself he took a step forwards, making her flee up onto the counter-top with a startled squeak. "Relationship stuff, like dates and... stuff. Being around you is just so _hard_ ".

Did he mean that it was hard? Or did he mean... oh dear, was all she could manage to think. "I- I think I'd like that". What was she saying?! Were those words really coming out of her mouth? This was not how she had pictured this moment!

"Don't say that!" he snapped, and suddenly he was so close, leaning in over her, his breath falling upon her skin so hot and humid. It made her feel the same. "Do you know the amount of shite I have to deal with just now? Akatsuki, Madara, that damned Hyōton everyone keeps banging on about... Sasuke-temae" he forced the last name out, as if it was hard merely saying it. "If I get together with you now, Hinata, I will never let go. I'm not that kind of guy. And I can't, because I can't have you deal with all my shite too-attebayo".

"I'm a big girl" she replied in a small voice, straightening her back so that her face was an inch from his and their bodies nearly pressed together where she was sitting atop Gai's counter-top. "I can handle all of it. I'm strong now". _I'm ready for this_.

"You should never have to-attebayo" he told her, his voice growing less harsh as he seemed to study her slender eyebrows. She had plucked them, he could tell, but not by much, and the indigo-black had a silky shine even there. "Damn it all, you're so beautiful".

"You r-really think so, Naruto-kun?" she felt faint as he said it, her knees trembling even as she sat down, and as his eyes went just a hint down their gazes locked together -

And it felt like a shot of electricity was lancing through her.

"I-" what would she say to him, as his beautiful blue eyes looked into hers? "I-" _I have loved you for so long_. "I-" _I have always dreamt about you_. "I-" _I have imagined having your children more times than I can count_. "I-" _I'm yours, forever and always_. "I want to kiss you, Naruto". _I love you_.

"Hinata" his hand found its way to the back of her slender neck, his rough fingers so warm against her feverish and silky skin. Even though she wasn't brave enough to say anything, or brave enough to make the first move, them saying each other's names, as they were meant to be said, without honorifics or courtesy forms, felt so... so right. "We shouldn't-"

"I don't care anymore" she replied with a sudden burst of bravery and took both his whiskered cheeks in her hands, pulling his face towards her. Now, finally, after all those years –

"Hinata-sama!" Someone banged open the door to the kitchen, and Neji shoved his head inside, followed by the two handmaidens, making the two would-be lovers stop even as they stood on the cusp of surrendering to their passions in the sweetest of kisses.

"What?!" she snapped her head around at her cousin, furious beyond words. This had been her chance to finally make Naruto hers, and he had the gall to- Argh! "What's so important?!"

"Uhm" he was stumped at her uncharacteristic anger, but he had to say something to get her away from there and out of the embrace of that Uzumaki. "Konohamaru-san... said he was going to play your guitar... like a drum".

"Oh!" And suddenly the spell broke around her, as she had promised Asuma-sensei not to let anyone touch it without her express permission, and she looked back to Naruto. "I should probably-"

"We just can't catch a break, can we?" he muttered darkly before he moved away, rubbing his face tiredly. "Go on, Hinata-chan. We'll do this another time-attebayo".

And so she left him alone in the kitchen, Naruto glaring at Neji's back as the Hyūga four went back out into the crowded room. But maybe this wasn't so bad, he figured. Maybe they would have some other time later that night to finally kiss and -

But no, he was wrong. Learning from a stern lecture from Neji Hinata's handmaidens watched her like hawks from that moment onwards, their looks at him making it clear that they didn't trust him to give them the time of day, much less inclined leave him alone with their mistress. He tried to speak with her, but she was whisked away early to the Hyūga compound, and so he settled in to sulk and decided to go to training ground 4 to see if he could perfect the Fūton: Rasengan. He did feel absurdly close to doing just that, so maybe if he just tried a little harder...

As the night wore on and the party died down Ino and Chouji found themselves sitting by their lonesome at one end of the great table next to a softly snoring Lee, both of them sobered up, neither of them tired. No, the sorrow was fading from them, leaving nothing but nervous energy... and rage.

And as they sat silently conversing they heard a sudden clatter against the nearest window, and so they went towards it frowningly, leaning out through it as pebbles bounced off the side of the building.

"Yo" Shikamaru waved simply as they leant out that window and wondered what he was doing there now, after all that time. Those concerns changed when they saw what he wore. He was dressed for battle, having shouldered into his chunin uniform, and upon his hip he had holstered Asuma's trench knives and a heavy roll of wire and explosive tags. Over his back he carried a bag no doubt filled with additional supplies, and he looked like he was getting ready for war.

But most importantly of all was the fact that, in the gloom of the lanternlit night, they could tell he had a lit cigarette in his mouth. "Are we doing this thing or what?"

Ino and Chouji looked to each other, and as one, in perfect unison, they smiled wickedly.

For now was the hour of retribution.

* * *

Normally Nara Shikamaru hated when things didn't go according to plan.

He could only work with knowns, after all. Unknown factors merely messed up his calculations without tellable denominators, and so he always strived to know everything there was the know about his enemy before he fought them. If you charged into a situation without paying any heed to the capabilities of your foe, you were sure to fail.

The master of warfare, Sun Tzu, said thus: If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will be imperilled in every battle; if you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat; and -

If you know the enemy, and know yourself, your victory is assured in a hundred battles.

"You know" he had managed to draw the man they called Hidan, the insane one of the Akatsuki pair known as the Zombie combo, away from his insanely powerful partner and deep into the woods beyond the forests of pale trees. Little had the cursemaster known that the green woods he were in now, that fertile and wild land, was Nara land, land that belonged to Shikamaru's clan. This entire section of woods had been riddled with traps and tripwire, courtesy of his preparations, and even in knowing that Hidan had pursued him. They had fought a little, Shikamaru seeming tired and wan, until Hidan had seemingly slashed his cheek, activated the curse and slain him. But Shikamaru knew the man now. He knew his tricks, his temperament, his habits and his faith, and as Shikamaru knew his own limitations and skills too...

Sun Tzu more or less guaranteed him a victory, right?

Hidan stopped dead in his tracks, slowly turning around the face the Nara that was slowly climbing to his feet. How was it possible? Hidan had taken his blood, bound him to his curse under the sign of Jashin, and stabbed himself in the heart under the sign of God, and the boy had fallen dead to the ground. Had his curse failed? But Jashin's power was the greatest there was, so no-

"You know" Shikamaru said as he stood, the fatigue he had been faking gone and his limbs once shaking now standing straight and strong. "That wasn't my blood you had just now. Congratulations, dickhead – you just made the fight a little more easy for my team-mates!"

"Heathen scum!" Hidan roared once the fact that the blood he had tasted had been had been Kakuzu's. "How the hell did you-!"

How did he? Shikamaru had gotten a gift from his teacher last New Year's celebration, a book that for once wasn't about shogi or clouds or calligraphy like the ones his da always got him. _The Art of War_ , it was called, a foreign book written thousands of years ago in a distant land by a general who was said to be unconquerable. Shikamaru, of course, had gotten around to reading it eventually, one day when the others in the Konoha 11 were engrossed in their chakra nature transformation training, and had memorised it from back to front since.

It was amazing what you could learn if you picked up a book every now and then.

 _If you know the terrain and its conditions, your victory will be complete_.

Shikamaru threw a single kunai with a fluid motion towards Hidan, and, as he knew he would, Hidan deflected it towards the right at a 22 degree angle upwards. Hidan didn't know what Shikamaru did, though: that he had lured the Akatsuki murderer into his current position, and that deflected kunai would trigger-

A flashing mass of projectiles, released by the tension provided by a single cut wire, ejected out of the cover of the trees to Hidan's right, kunai and senbon and explosive darts moving mercilessly through the air with a whistle. Hidan turned towards the attack, exclaiming in surprise, and deflected some but not all. Shikamaru had noticed that the man protected his joints and upper torso despite being ostensibly immortal, meaning that he could be incapacitated if struck in the muscles.

 _Attack where he is not prepared, appear where you are not expected_.

As his attention was diverted Shikamaru attacked his foe, dashing high in a leap with his sensei's trench knives at the ready to decapitate the bastard. Hidan, of course, versed in Taijutsu as he was, turned around just in time to block the attack using his monstrous scythe.

Shikamaru attacked, seemingly in desperation, swinging wildly and flailingly as if on his las breath, and though Hidan took a blade to the gut before he recovered he pursued the opening he perceived. If he ended the Nara now, then maybe he would get back in time to see Kakuzu kill the last of the cumbresome brats.

Shikamaru was forced on the retreat dropping his trench knives, and seemed to stumble before he dashed back, panting heavily as Hidan stepped out onto a barely noticeable mark upon the ground.

 _Pretend to be weak as to encourage his arrogance_.

But it was a ruse, for as Shikamaru dropped his arms he smirked and clasped his hands together, his shadow springing out from himself and those knives in which he had infused his own chakra, having pushed the enemy hard enoug to make him forget that trick he had played on him earlier. Hidan found himself restrained and struggling as a shadowy tendril snaked out into the undergrowth of the forest and found a long steel wire to which explosive tags had been attached, coiling back to wrap itself and that wire around the cursemaster's writhing form. Shikamaru stood up calmly, his exhaustion not nearly as severe as he had made it out to be.

 _Feign disorder; and crush him_.

"What was it again that your explosion happy comrade used to say?" Shikamaru drawled as he channelled his chakra like Kakashi had trained him to. "Deidara, was it?" Hidan's eyes flashed wide as the shadow hands linked around him seemed to buckle and twist, bulging and glowing black as they were filled with energy. "Oh, that's right". Shikamaru grinned and activated his technique with a shout.

" _Katsu_!"

His shadow, infused with Katon chakra to the point of breaking, coiled harder around Hidan's body for an instant before it seemed to explode. A resounding boom shook the forest around them, and in a hail of dirt that showered the area around which Shikamaru stood a sudden blanket of smoke enveloped their little clearing. As the shadow settled back around Shikamaru he stepped a little gingerly towards the sound of agonised screaming within the smoke, and found his plan performed to perfection.

"I'll get you for this, Konoha scum!" Hidan roared, his singed head divorced from his body and his burned body from many of his charred limbs at the bottom of a pit that Chouji had dug earlier using his Baika no Jutsu, a deep hole in the ground covered by only a couple of inches of stretched tarp and dirt as to make it seem like ground. As the smoke cleared and Shikamaru panted he could see that the wires and explosives laced around the pit were all intact and untriggered, and he found his smirk growing wider yet. "I'll climb out of this pit and I'll drink your blood-!"

"I usually hate it when a plan doesn't go the way it should" Shikamaru remarked in a gleefully pensive way. "I mean, me and Chouji and Ino were supposed to take you down together while Kakashi-sensei handled your mate. But then your mate turned out to be the most over powered tosser ever, and they had to stay behind to take care of him. I'm not sad about that, though". His grin became a bloodthirsty snarl as he stared down the pit with darkened eyes. "It means I get to take revenge all by myself".

"This won't kill me, you insolent insect!" Hidan roared from within the darkness of the pit. "Jashin-sama's protection is infallible! I can never die-!"

"Of course" Shikamaru nodded and stood from his perch on the edge of the pit, lighting a cigarette from the packet kept in his vest's upper left breast pocket by his teacher's silver zippo lighter. "I'm not stupid. I know that you can't die. But you don't know the following little facts: this land belongs to my clan, and we Nara have long memories. I will cave in hole over you, and we will keep watch for eternity, making sure you never return to the world. You will spend eternity in darkness, you sick fuck. I know that, since I know you can't die".

Hidan roared in defiance from the bottom of the trench as Shikamaru took a deep inhalation from his cigarette and then flicked it away, making it land with the smouldering end to one of the explosive tags down below.

And as the ground caved in around the hole and filled it in, shutting away Hidan's cries forever, Shikamaru turned after having collected his sensei's trench knives and made to head back to his team, a single dark whisper spoken into the air from his lips.

"That was for Asuma-sensei, Akatsuki scum".

In hindsight Shikamaru was thankful for Kakashi's troublesome chakra nature transformation training, as it had given him a neat little trick by which to enhance his Kagemane no Jutsu. Since what the technique did was manipulate his shadow by use of his own chakra he could, in a limited way, manipulate it's chakra nature to a small extent. It was simply a matter of changing the nature of the chakra he filled his shadow with. And as he had discovered that little trick, by Kakashi's incessant teaching and Hinata's prodding advice, he had discovered that he could pump more and more of his chakra into his shadow and then release it all at one in an outward burst resembling, at least visually and in effect, an explosion of fire.

He was thankful that he didn't have a Suiton affinity. If he had, what would that little trick do? Make his captured enemy a little bit wet?

But he had to admit, as he found himself stumbling for real now as he made his way back to his team much slower than he would have liked, that the technique was draining to the extreme. He had plenty of chakra, monstrously so for a Nara... but the key phrase was "For a Nara". His clan didn't exactly have a surplus chakra strength, quite the opposite really, and rarely excelled at Ninjutsu other than their Hiden Jutsu, the Kagemane. So his new technique was useful only for showing off and for, perhaps, executing powerful foes.

He had tried coming up with a name for it, but it was too troublesome.

As he began to hear a rumble in the distance he forced himself to pick up his pace, knowing that he had left Ino and Chouji and Kakashi-sensei at a precarious position at best, and that even if he could not fight too well as he was now he could still help them, maybe create a diversion to aid their escape if everything went to hell in a handbasket. And as he resolved that he broke out into a run and tumbled out of the forest to see, well... something he had not been expecting.

Kakashi stood huddled together with Ino and a panting, battered-looking Chouji, at the base of a massive bone-white and long since dead tree, staring slack-jawed right ahead of them. In front of them though, which was the surprising part, were Haruno Sakura, the troublesome loud woman who despite a facade of civility was a brutal and uncompromising sort, Yamato, that troublesome Mokuton user who seemed to be an old soldier of Kakashi's, and Sai, the most troublesome of all who Shikamaru didn't trust as far as he could throw him. All of them, and soon Shikamaru too, were staring at the twisted and inky black mass that was Kazuku of Akatsuki, making ready for battle at the base of another white tree – or rather, they were staring at what was falling through the air at him.

"Suiton: Rasenringu!" a saviour clad in orange cried as his disc-like technique slammed into the ground next to the Akatsuki member from above, the immortal having just narrowedly dodged it, and the effects of the technique were nothing short of amazing.

A mass of water exploded out from the centre of that technique with enough pressure to carve a deep crater in the ground upon which it impacted, and out from it in a wailing mass swept the wave like storm, arching high and clearing the immediate area of everything that could be washed away. A flood washed over Kazuku, slamming him against the trunk of that tree before it broke a little and was nearly swept away by the raging waves, and only by Yamato's sudden raising of an earthen platform did he and the others not meet the same fate. Shikamaru leapt up and narrowly avoided the flood despite his great distance from the epicentre of the blast some three hundred yards away, and landed atop the water to run towards the group upon that now upraised earthen isle in the middle of a minor lake.

"Impressive!" the deep and hollow voice of the Akatsuki abomination against the natural order boomed as he straightened himself up, looking at a panting Naruto who landed nimbly atop the surface of the water a little ways away. "In all my years I have never seen that Jutsu before! To create a lake with only a single technique – only your Shodaime and his brother could do that!"

"You haven't seen anything yet, you damn geezer!" Naruto snarled and pushed his fingers into his signature crossed sign. "Kagebunshin no Jutsu!"

"My!" Kazuku chuckled as another five dozen Narutos popped into existence with little puffs of smoke. "So many, and such an advanced technique! I must have your heart!"

"If you want it" came the challenge from the blonde in orange who was the future of Konoha "you've gotta come take it from me-attebayo!"

"Suits me perfectly!" the mass of black tentacles shifted as another heart within it came to the fore. "Prepare yourself, whelp!"

And with that the two combatants rushed towards each other, each in a way in defiance of the natural order. Kazuku was an abomination against life, having eked out a life through the centuries as a parasite and a leech, stealing the life and hearts of others like a vampire to sustain his own frugal and greedy existence.

Naruto, on the other hand, stood defiant in the face of fate itself.

"Uzumaki Rengan!" a score of his clones cried as they charged, seemingly blindly, fists and feet stretched out in battle. Many of them didn't even have time to land their blows before they were smothered out of existence by inky tendrils of misbegotten evil or the blazing Jutsus the elder one executed them with. He had gathered much knowledge of his years, so much more than anyone else ever could have, and he considered himself a master of almost every shinobi principle and every element.

He was, however, not prepared to face Uzumaki Naruto on a good day.

And really, was anyone?

"Fūton" the real Naruto roared from above as he struck towards his enemy, a whirling mass of wind in the centre of his palm howling like a gale at the centre of a centennial storm "Rasenshuriken!" Ino gaped as she saw that whirling mass of whitened chakra, seeing it move at speeds she had never anticipated. And Kazuku cursed loudly as he was too late to stop the technique from hitting him.

But before it could land, the half-formed disk of chakra sputtered and winked out of existence. Quite anti-climactic, really.

While Kazuku was thankful that the technique had failed as he knocked back Naruto to force him away the ones upon the platform gaping. Whatever that Jutsu was Naruto had failed to use it, and they began to worry over his chances of survival as Shikamaru approached. And so the Naruto copies stood back and made ready to charge again.

Naruto, the real one, stood back and let his clones charge in attack as he caught his breath and gathered his wits about him after he landed on the surface of the water. It was a trick he had learnt by sparring with Neji, Lee and Gai all at once, as two would constantly press him while the third would rest and observe, tagging in and trading positions with one of the others to make sure that he was always hard-pressed and under pressure. It was crazy effective, and he had easily adapted it for his own use.

However, the Rasenshuriken was another thing entirely. Water chakra had to be coaxed and drawn into one's control, but once there it was pretty docile and stable and he could do whatever the hell he wanted with it. But wind chakra... wind had to constantly be maintained and focused on, and when he was trying to fight and also not get his sorry arse impaled it was very hard to focus as much as he needed to. And after using it once with Yamato-taicho, and a Rasenringu at the start of the fight, and now once more but failed...

Even he had his limits, and he was approaching them swiftly. After so long spent training his energy was low and he hadn't had time to get it back up again properly. He was hesitant to admit it, but he was exhausted...

And so he had to end this fight quickly.

"Shikamaru!" Chouji greeted his friend with a sigh of relief as the Nara jumped up on their platform, a little wobbly from being almost run into the ground. "Is-?"

"He's taken care of" the Nara replied shortly and looked on as Naruto rushed to battle once more, setting up and trying out elaborate patterns of attack with his clones as aides. "How did the rest of you-"

"We heard that Tsunade-sama threatened you with court martial for desertion before Kakashi-senpai said he'd go with you, Nara-san" Yamato interrupted even as his eyes were fixed on his subordinate's battling with the demon. "So we went right after. Neither I nor my senpai have very much confidence in our Hokage these days. And it gives Naruto-kun the perfect opportunity to try out his new Jutsu".

"You mean the thing that just went out?" Ino asked, shivering a little from pain and exhaustion. "It's not working-"

"Naruto's chakra control has always been his weak point" Kakashi supplied in a grunt from where he was sitting. "Give him another chance. He never disappoints".

And Kakashi, in the end, was right.

In a desperate last move, when he was down to his last reserves and last five clones, Naruto gritted his teeth and decided to try that Jutsu again. As three clones attacked and gave their all distracting Kazuku from above a single clone stood by the blonde's side and helped him form his attack, a spiralling orb at the centre of his palm around which a shuriken like disk of howling razor edges jutted and spun. And when Kazuku saw the boy dashing towards him it was already too late to get out of the way.

"Fūton" he roared with the last ounce of energy he had "Rasenshuriken!"

The blast of cold, almost icy wind that spiralled out from the attack once it struck nearly threw the lot of them off their perch, and it sent high and thunderous waves crashing through the new lake in the middle of the white forest. Everything in a fifty yard radius was shredded as an litteral orb of razor sharp wind seemed to explode at the centre of the blast, and everything just outside of it was slung far away, Naruto's now prone form sailing through the air. As Yamato twisted his hands through a few signs and made a wooden arm spring from their platform to catch him the others witnessed the effects of that surging technique as it died down. The Akatsuki immortal was, in a very literal sense, cut to pieces, and as his body was shredded down to the cells he was made into a fine powder, a black mist that sank into the water of the newly formed lake. And as he disappeared in a faint howl cut short by death they took Naruto from the branch and lowered him carefully to lie among them.

"Did anyone see that shite?" Naruto asked with a dazed and drunken smile as they set him down on the ground. "Because from my end it was awesome!"

"You thick-headed idiot" Sakura grumbled as she looked over his arm, seeing that it was in quite the dire state from the backlash of his new Super Jutsu. "Doing something cool like that and then spoiling it all with your nonsense! You could have gotten killed! Naruto! Naruto?" she prodded, but it was no use, because he had fallen asleep from exhaustion and was happily snoring. "Shannaro!"

"Don't wake him, Sakura" Kakashi told her a little softly as Chouji and Shikamaru helped him stand. "He's earned a little sleep, don't you think?"

"He did pull our sorry rear ends out of the fire, Kakashi-senpai" Yamato concurred and lifted Naruto up onto his back. "Come on, everyone" he spoke up as he followed Kakashi's lead back towards the south. "Let's go home.

And as they went Shikamaru walked silently after Yamato, thinking back on what had happened that day. His father and the clan wouldn't very much approve of him doing what he had just done and seal an immortal enemy deep in the earth below their prized deer woods, but what done was done. And besides, they'd probably be overjoyed about his new technique despite its relative uselessness, the troublesome old fools. The others probably thought he had pulled it out of nowhere... if he ever showed it to them. It was useful to have a trick or two up his sleeve that no one knew about. After all: _all warfare is based on deception_.

"Shika-pine" said a mumble from atop Yamato's back, and Shikamaru looked up to see Naruto's bright blue eyes awake and looking back at him dazedly.

"So you're alive after all" Shikamaru masked his amazement and his joy by smirking. Truly, Uzumaki was an unknown factor in all of this... but somehow he didn't mind. If there was a man he would follow unto the gates of hell itself, it would be him, for he always seemed to come out of things on top. "You troublesome git. Don't you ever learn to just stay down? You're hogging all the glory from the rest of us".

"Why did you do it?" Naruto, on the other hand, seemed to be in a bit of a mood, and Shikamaru's grin faded slowly to be replaced by a determined scowl. "You said shove off to Tsunade-obaachan and went away without orders. Why?"

"Because sometimes the right thing to do is not the legal thing to do" Shikamaru answered slowly, the conversations falling quiet around them. "Because justice must always be pursued if the Will of Fire is to survive". And Naruto, though he didn't really quite understand, not just yet, nodded slowly in response.

From aside Kakashi smiled beneath his mask. Truly Asuma had fostered great students, and his death had begun to shape a legacy of true greatness.

 _The onus upon Buddha is to die_ , he thought, _so that others can be inspired to follow in his footsteps_.

And as night closed in on them they made their way back home to the challenges that awaited them there.

None of them knew that their troubles had only just begun.

…

And... cut! Whoa, that was a bit of a ride, wasn't it? At least it was for me!

 **A/N:** Anyway, this chapter was intended to be, originally, a shorter one, but it turns out it got nearly as long as the last. However it got out a lot quicker, as it nearly wrote itself, you know? I just couldn't help myself but to include some weird Anko/Kakashi fluff (still sort of undecided on that ship), NaruHina cuteness and Shizune snarking, and so here the final product is.

There's a lot of Chinese influences in this chapter, as I took the organizing of the Hyūga clan from certain Beijing noble families before the boxer rebellion and the 'Mandate of Heaven'-thing from a chinese concept on the divine right of rulers. Just check it out, google it or whatever... it's pretty cool. And whose to say you can be entertained and educated all at once! I call it... fun-ducation! (No I don't, that'd be utterly rubbish).

Well, following this chapter we have our major deviation from Canon, a couple of kinda-OC (you'll see what I mean later) and the first taste of GoT-style political conflict. Until then; cheerio!

As always: Read and Review, and DFTBA!


	6. A Secret Revealed

**A/B:** So you guys know how I said that there would be some sort of OCs in this chapter?

I was, actually, referring to chapter 7. As time went on the length sheer number of things I needed to put into chapter 6 meant that these characters, for at least a little while longer, get to stay off-stage. So… here are some other stuff! Fun stuff, granted, but none the less other.

(Please don't be mad… plz? Prty plz w cheez on t?)

This chapter's themesong is Avarice by Disturbed, mostly based on a single line in the song. So you say "Politics and evil" are "All the one and same?"… Interesting. I wonder what this chapter will be about?

* * *

Chapter 6: A Secret Revealed

* * *

Tsunade knew something bad was going to happen as soon as she heard that Danzō was seeking an audience with her just hours after Team Kakashi and the newly christened Team Shikamaru had returned to Konoha.

And she knew that the shite had truly hit the fan at the instant proclamation he made after he was let into her presence.

"You have been keeping a secret from the council, Hokage-sama" he said in his commonly level voice as soon as he got in through the door, and the Sarutobi girl that had become Tsunade's personal aide was start of Konha's spymaster. Nominally, at least, the Shimura and the Sarutobi were on friendly terms, with the former being wealthy and the latter being numerous and prestigious having long since figured that an alliance was in their best interests. Or as close as an alliance as the Shimura ever made. After all, Danzō's clan did run the military police in Konoha ever since the Uchiha had been… disposed of. They had become a suspicious lot since then.

"What're you talking about, Shimura-san?" she said as levelly as she could while giving the girl at the side of her desk a look. She didn't understand though, which was infuriating. Shizune had always understood- "Leave us!" she snapped at the girl, angered by her own thoughts, and as the Sarutobi woman ran out of the office she closed the door behind her with a bang, leaving the two elders alone.

"As one of my subordinates was taken onto a… disallowed mission, as it were" Danzō began as he walked towards Tsunade's desk, supported on his cane "I could not help to be curious as to his disobedience. Imagine my surprise at what he told me, and what he additionally provided when I implored him to… expound".

"What did Sai tell you?" Tsunade nearly spat at him, hating that pale boy at the moment. All of her carefully laid plans, crushed in an instant because one lad couldn't keep his gob shut.

"Everything he knows" came the simple and undeterred answer "which I doubt is all. Now, the council is aware of your recent… withdrawal from conventional duties, but judging from the information provided by my subordinate you've known for considerably longer than that. This is a matter of state safety. Not telling us is tantamount to treason".

"Treachery is in defying or threatening the Hokage!" she snapped back at him, knowing full well where this conversation was going.

"Treachery is in knowingly failing the village" Danzō replied "and anyone can be guilty of it… from the lowest to the highest. But" he let his one hand fall to the table before her "I am not an unreasonable man. I simply need an assurance from you that you will do what is good for the asset that possess these… strange capabilities, and the good of the village. Given that, I see no reason to share this transgression with the council".

"How would I assure that?" Tsunade knew what he was doing, what he wanted, but she would play his little game.

"By installing an overseer with the objective to scrutinise the project; one of good breeding and great experience. I would, of course, trust very few with this. And as only you and I know about this in this room-"

"You want to oversee the project, and if you don't your conscience will get the better of you?" she interrupted and stood, glaring daggers at the leader of the ROOT initiative. "You're blackmailing me, Shimura".

"And you have quite the grasp of the obvious" he said in the same tone as always, outwardly completely stoic and stone-faced. "I believe you are aware of what is at stake here. If the Hokage have committed treason against the state the council is well within its rights to remove you, start an inquiry and install a regency council until such a time a new Hokage can be named". He didn't mention if they were going to remove her from office or from the ranks of the living… and he didn't need to. In shinobi politics that was frequently one and the same.

"I'm not Sarutobi-sensei" she leant in over her desk and starred him right in the eye "and you do not frighten me in the least, Shimura".

"I will be forced to take action against you, Senju" he replied, a hint of ice creeping into his tone.

"Bring all that you've got" she snarled. "Come hell or come high water I would die before I see you become Hokage".

"I do hope that utterance is not prophetic, Senju" he replied simply and turned his back on her, walking towards the door. "We shell meet again shortly". And as he left Tsunade stayed completely still for a little while longer until she was sure he was out of sight and out of ken from her.

Then she sprung into a flurry of activity.

She had that Sarutobi slip of a girl come back and began to bark orders like a drill sergeant that had transformed into a dog during a parade. She had the digital version of the mission folder for Project: Arctic Fox printed out and copied about two dozen times while she had her assistant send out messenger hawks and runners to all the clan heads, summoning them to an immediate meeting of great importance before it was too late.

If she didn't act fast then she would not have time to act at all.

Kakashi was brought to her too. It was necessary, though she told him to keep his lips sealed and only speak when she told him to. At this juncture she might not be able to save the initiative she had planned or the rest of her plans, but she could, at the very least, make sure she didn't get booted out of her office and onto the headsman's block.

"I've brought you all here" she spoke no less than forty minutes later as the entire council of clans and the civilian assembly were gathered before her in her office "to discuss a matter most important". Danzō had been given the wrong summons on purpose and was not yet present – let no one say that Tsunade wasn't vindictive – but all the other heads from the major clans were there. Akimichi Chouza and his erstwhile vassals Nara Shikaku and Yamanaka Inoichi stood at one end, the Hyūga-Inuzuka-Aburame alliance in the centre, and at the far end had gathered the Sarutobi, the Kagetsu, the Hōki, the Hatake and the Konoha branch of the Fūma clan – all of them were at least loosely affiliated or related with the Shimura. Kakashi, ever dutiful, stood beside her own chair, and the civilian assembly stood in the back behind the shinobi clan heads.

"Almost a month ago" she began "a new Kekkei Genkai was discovered in this village. I've neglected to inform you to give myself some time to study it and discern the strength of the abilities it has. Everything I have found out so far is in the files my assistant will be handing out to you".

"Where is the original files?" Shikaku, attentive as always, asked as he was handed a folder and studied it impassively. He knew these were copies and that a physical version of it was the original, no doubt hidden away somewhere. It would be disastrous if the wrong people got their hands on the information contained therein.

"Somewhere safe" Tsunade replied sharply, adding internally: Where even I can never reach it. "As you will soon see, it seems the abilities are buried deep in the asset in question. The lack of results we have experienced in our endeavours have lead me to make this information public. I am asking all of you… what do you think we should do?"

In this she secured herself from Danzō's rumormongering, and by leaving the project in their control she put herself on good terms with the lot of them already. She lost what little control she had over the project, as all assets of state were under the direction of the council and not the Hokage, but at least she kept her head.

And as she spoke and told them everything, Kakashi began to fear for the future.

* * *

It is said that the Inuzuka are the only wolves who live in warrens.

In the woods that covered the lands that would eventually become Konohagakure no sato many beasts once lived, and despite bears and forest lions and tigers the apex predators were always the wolves. Hunting in great packs often numbering two-scores of fighting beasts they would prowl the great forests of Hi No Kuni at night, hunting both beast and man. In the legends of old it is said that a human child was once found by the alpha female of such a band of wolves after a hunt had killed that child's family, and the wolf bitch took mercy on the human pup, nursing him along with her other cubs and raising him in the ways of the fang and the claw. That boy's birth name was Katō Tekeshi, but as he grew into a man alongside the pack and spoke the language of the wolves better than he ever had the tongues of man he took another name:

Inuzuka, the dog of the high hills.

It is said that Inuzuka learned great things, dangerous practices and bestial Justsu, from the wolves, but still longed to be part of the human world. With one of his adopted brothers at his side, Chimaru, the Blood Wolf, he travelled the lands of Hi no Kuni as a lone hero, fighting evil kings and sorcerers in the days just after the end of the war between the Asura and Indra clans that ended with the latter's total extermination. As so he became a close friend to one Senju Tsurama, the first of that clan, and took his daughter for a wife. But even so Inuzuka never ceased to travel, even though married and with children at his side, and so even after his death on the summit of Lángtakē, a mountain sacred to all his scions even in modern times, in the presence of his grandchildren and descendants the clan he had fathered moved on, nomadic in nature and temperament.

But the Inuzuka clan would forever be torn between two natures: wolf and man, the spirit without and the beast within. And so they fought, as caravan guards and bandit raiders in the time before hidden villages, earning a name as bloodthirsty warriors whose hit and run tactics were unconquerable. It was due to this reputation that Senju Hashirama approached them with an offer – join his initiative, and they would have to travel and starve and live off the dregs of the world no longer. It caused great disturbance in the clan, this notion, and the chief of the Inuzuka at the time, a brute known as Kurosora, refused outright, but his son, Kiba, knew that the world was changing. He could smell it upon the winds. If his clan stayed the way they were then they would grow extinct in a world of alliances and unions and hidden wars.

And so he challenged his father for the chiefdom and slew him with tears in his eyes, and so accepted Hashirama Shodaime's offer, leading the Inuzuka to a brighter future.

Since then the clan had changed greatly. Furs and loincloths had been traded for uniforms and clothes made by human hands, their stone knives and flint-headed spears exchanged for kunai and switchblades, but despite becoming a shinobi clan, despite becoming "civilised", they never forgot their heritage. And so, deep beneath the Inuzuka clan hold, a series of low buildings with slated roofs surrounded by a wooden palisade on the edge of eastern Konoha, lay the Inuzuka warrens, a series of tunnels, burrows and dens in which they kept their secrets and their customs hidden, deep tunnels culminating in a place known only to the clan: the Blood Pit.

Inuzuka Kiba, named at the one that had lead their clan to their current state, often roamed the tunnels on restless nights when the moon was high and his blood boiled too much for sleep. With him, of course, walked always the ever trusty Akamaru, and on that evening Kiba found himself in a small exercise hall some hundred feet below the floor of his own bedroom, lifting weights at one of the benches.

"Bro, do you even lift?" Akamaru taunted from the side with his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he panted.

"Shut it and spot me, will ya?!" Kiba grunted and pressed the bar onto which the weights were attached higher up again, holding it on trembling and burning arms.

"Oh, sure – I'll just grab a hold of it with my opposable thumbs" Akamaru made a show of looking down on his paws. "Oh, wait! Silly me, I forgot! I'm a dog!"

"Fine" Kiba snarled and lifted the bar as high as he could "but you better damn well catch it, you hear?!"

"Have I ever let you down, bro?" the massive dog replied, and Kiba had to admit that, despite his tendency to bitch (oddly appropriate term) and snark, Akamaru had never let him down, and never ever would. "On your mark".

Kiba took a deep breath and, holding the bar as high up as he could above his body, let it go and flashed his hands together in the sign of the tiger. "Jūjin Bunshin!" As his body twisted in a puff of smoke that weighty steel bar fell heedlessly towards his exposed throat -

Only to be caught in mid-air by a now humanoid and smirking Akamaru transformed as to look almost identical to Kiba did right then: bare chest rippling with muscle and coated in a thin layer of sweat, black sandals and slacks that hung low on his hips, Konoha hitai-ite tied proudly around his head. The only difference from how Kiba normally looked was his sharpened and elongated fingernails and teeth, made to look like claws and fangs, and slitted predator eyes bespeaking a primal origin. But Kiba did look the same right then. Such was the effect of the Jūjin Bunshin, the beast clone.

Thanking Akamaru with a nod, to which the now humanoid dog winked and smirked, incapable of human speech as he was, Kiba sat up from the bench and helped Akamaru lower the weighted bar to its stand just above it, proceeding to wipe the bench down with a rag as to not leave it sweaty for whomever wanted to exercise after him. He had done five reps of twenty, nearly forty pounds on the bar, and he could feel his arms shaking and burning in exhaustion as he dispelled the technique and became fully human once more. As weary as he was... he wiped his face almost wistfully.

"Something on your mind, bro?" Akamaru, who had returned to his four-legged form, wondered in what wasn't quite speech – most of it was silent, quirks of the head, looks of the eye, moving of the tail, changing of the scent and a sort of slight semi-telepathy – but Kiba never the less understood the dog better than his human peers.

"Aye... full moon tonight" he rubbed his eyes hard. "Kinda wanna run out, howl, jump about, hunt..."

"Chase bitches?" Akamaru supplied, and Kiba gave him a look. "Or in your case... women?"

"You know me so well" he muttered to the dog over his shoulder as they left the gym after turning the fluorescent light fixtures screwed to the rocky ceiling of the cave. "But there's training early tomorrow since Kakashi and team Naruto got back earlier today". He sighed deeply and wryly kicked a pebble on the floor of the stony tunnel so that it bounced off the unhewn and rough uneven walls pitted with erosion. "Bloody aye, I need to get myself a girlfriend".

"Aye, you sure do" the dog replied a little too readily as his white fur seemed almost grey in the gloom of the tunnel as they moved upwards through the warrens, walking past room upon room that the clan at one point or another had viewed as essential.

"Oi, spare my heart, will you?!" the Inuzuka grumbled in annoyance.

"What? Have you smelled your den? It stinks of wank in there!" Akamaru did whatever the dog version of an exclamation was called with a bestial chuckle. "Though not as much as your clutch-mate's..."

"Please don't talk about my sister in that way" Kiba found himself pleading with his dog, and wasn't that an odd notion for anyone who wasn't an Inuzuka? "It's enough that she went to live outside the clan and rejected our heritage, but that she had a live in partner with whom-" he shuddered. His sister terrified him, as she always had, and to think of the poor sap who was doomed to be in a relationship with her... It was like imagining the love life of a praying mantis:

Insects that tore apart and devoured their mates during copulation.

"But you still need to get a breeding-mate" Akamaru would not let the matter rest as they went up through the tunnels towards the entrance to the main building of the compound, a pair of massive cast-iron doors with ring handles the shapes of snarling wolf's heads. "How about the lavender-smelling one? Pale-eye Shy?"

"Hinata?" Kiba felt a little sick at the notion. "But she's so tiny and cute and squeaky... like a doll, you know? She's like a little sister to me. I couldn't ever do that to her. It'd be... weird, you know?" He shuddered at the notion. Besides, Hinata wasn't his. She was sort of ambivalent about dogs – which was a big no no for him – and she always seemed to be hung up on Naruto. Believe it or not, but for Kiba a girl being so maddeningly in love with another man was a huge turn off. So he had gotten into the habit of thinking of her as a sister and threw his whole spirit into getting her together with that blonde gobshite.

And in the end, the NaruHina Alliance had become a little spot of pride for him.

"Alright, so not Pale-eye Shy" was the answer he got to that pronouncement. "So maybe Mind-Flower? Steel Chrysanthemum? Pink-medicine Rage?"

"Ino... maybe" Kiba reluctantly spoke. "She's pretty hot, and she's quite strong, too... which is super hot. But Ten-Ten and Sakura?" He didn't want either of them because they both reeked of adoration for another man... something he admired with Ten-Ten and Neji and something he was disgusted with Sakura for.

In Kiba's mind the world was simple and consisted of three kinds of people: pack, prey and hostile predators. Prey were the weak ones, the ones you either ignored or pursued when you felt hungry or in need of sport, the ones that you really didn't care about. Predators were the ones you either killed or ran from, but there was no middle ground; an enemy was an enemy, no matter what guise they took or how distant they were, and enemies were supposed to be either slaughtered or hunted. Pack... Konoha was Pack. The clan was Pack. His friends and family was Pack, and for the Pack you were willing to die at a moment's notice: that was the way of the world.

Traitors... traitors were not Pack. Traitors were the worst of the worst predators, insidious parasites that had managed to move and look and smell and talk like they were part of the Pack but never had the intention of being Pack. They were nothing but locusts devouring the growth of the world until nothing remained but death and the howling wind.

And a traitor's bitch was nearly as bad as the traitor himself. Whenever Sakura walked by he could still smell that burning edge of scent on her: the Sharingan scent. Sasuke... the very name made him growl.

"Right, sorry" Akamaru's gruff sent Kiba back to reality from the realm of his thoughts. "Shouldn't have mentioned Pink-medicine Rage. Gomene".

"Come to think on it" Kiba spoke a little dourly as the walked out those cast iron doors and climbed the stairs beyond towards the surface and the compound proper. "Ino... she's not right either. She's kind of a cat-person" he pronounced the work like it was disgusting in his mouth. "And she's flighty.. you know? Not exactly mother material".

"You're too young to be thinking of mating for life" Akamaru noted. "And besides... maybe that doesn't suit you, you know? You're a bit more of a 'many bitches, one male' sort of fellow".

"As incredibly hot as that sounds" Kiba almost drooled a little at the notion before he made himself see the reality before him "that's a pipe-dream, isn't it?" Akamaru stopped still in the middle of a pawing step and sat down to look at him, ears arching forwards in surprise and confusion as his giant head cocked to the side.

It was translated as: "Who the fuck are you, and what have you done to my Kiba?"

"Oh, don't give me that" Kiba drawled at his canine companion... no, he was more than a mere companion. He was a friend, a brother, the one that was closer to him than any other in the world would ever be. "I... everyone else are working so hard, aye? And we're just slagging off. You saw Hinata's and Naruto's Jutsu, you can tell how far the rest of them are going. They're... leaving us behind".

"What? Because they can do the bright flashes and make the ground and water move a little?" The dog did his equivalent of an indignant snort as they continued to ascend the stairs. "All their fancy tricks are nothing compared to a piece of good steel and a bared fang".

"You're just saying that because you're scared of being outclassed" Kiba knew how insecure Akamaru really was. Especially around the other Ninken of the clan, as he had been bullied for being weak and small as a pup, even though he was now one of the biggest and heaviest of his kind around. And that insecurity often passed over to the others in the Konoha 11, especially after the time Naruto had managed to beat them with nothing but a breaking of wind. "Akamaru... we've got to pick up the slack. No more horsing around, alright?"

"Alright, bro" the dog agreed reluctantly, humouring his brother in spirit. "But no... wait". He sniffed the air as they stood at the top of the steps and entered the clan compound proper, his hackles rising. "Something is... off. Wrong".

"An attack?" Kiba reached for the kunai strapped to his thigh, baring his teeth as he made to settle into a crouch.

"No..." Frowning, Kiba took a deep inhalation of the air of his home and could sense... within the halls of the compound, between wooden floor and ceiling and paper and stone walls, rushed the air with all the scents of normality but also... tension. Something had happened. Something that had made the air of his friendly home so hostile.

"We've gotta go talk to ma" he muttered and headed off down the hallway despite his half-undressed state, the Inuzuka as a rule not being very big on formality or properness at all. "Ma'll know what's up". His brother in spirit pawed after him, his exposed claws clicking against the dark oaken floor planks. Kiba kept his hand close to his kunai holster in the same air as Akamaru kept his claws out – something was wrong, and it seemed to be about them.

A figure moved out of an adjoining hallway at an intersection of paths, a stocky man followed shortly by a lumbering red timber wolf who was quite smaller but also quite more defined than Akamaru. "Oi, you two!" he called, and Kiba could just about resist snarling. His thoughts, on the other hand, were quite descriptive. And then there's this arsehole. Fuckin' prick...

"Whadya want, Dickhead-temae?" Kiba scoffed as the man drew closer, his red-tinged hair barely retraining it's lustre in the gloom of the corridor at night, his eyes in an odd but permanent state of being slitted like he was in the midst of the Jūjin Bunshin. Akamaru was in the midst of making long and threatening stares at the man's timber wolf. But unlike for Kiba and Obu, as the man was called, theirs was a slightly sexual tension, for despite Akamaru's insitances to the contrary he found the red-furred Shanmari to be quite... stunning.

"Whelp-kun" the man greeted in response, for he was five years older than Kiba and the one everyone claimed would take the chiefdom once Tsume, Kiba's mother and current chief, withdrew, retired or died. He was one of their strongest candidates, after all, and one of their most skilled Taijutsu fighters. "The chief wants a word with ya. Says you've been naughty".

"I was heading to see her already" Kiba gruffed and made to push past the smug shit to head to his mother's chambers at the far side of the compound, but at his smirk he stopped still in his step.

"The chief wants to see you in her study, Whelp-kun" Obu was nearly beaming as he spoke in a sing-song voice. "Mommy's back from her meeting with the council, boyo... and there's gonna be a spanking!"

"Any more of your fucking lip and we'll see about who's getting a spanking" Kiba snapped and made towards the study down the other hallway, a large chamber at the centre of the compound and the right way in from the main entrance and up two flights of stairs. Obu, of course, followed him all the way, saying nothing but smiling like an idiot anyway as he wanted to see the arrogant son of the chief taken down a peg at last.

Kiba, of course, had a disturbing inkling of what all of this was about, but said nothing as he left Obu and Shanmari behind and entered the office with Akamaru at his side. The far wall of the office was covered with a large map of the central heartland of the elemental nations, which meant Hi no Kuni and parts of the surrounding nations, but the borders and the capitals and roads weren't marked on it at all. It showed terrain, wildlife, known wolf habitats and verticality information and the locations of major human settlements, but other than that its only major feature were winding lines in red and gold and black – the old Inuzuka trails that they had walked before they had settled in Konoha alongside the Senju and the Hyūga.

That map was a reminder for the chief, a warning to never forget where they had come from and to remember the freedom they had given up when they became more human than beast.

The walls of the office were not laden with books or with scrolls or rosters – the Inuzuka were, as a rule, not inclined towards bookish ways or scholarly pursuits – but hung with weapons, plaques and trophies remembering victories won and foes conquered. In the centre of the room, behind an ebony desk flanked by two attendants – a brother and sister pair who were the children of some distant kinsman to Inuzuka Tsume. Neither of them were candidates for the chiefdom, as they both lacked the necessary charisma according to the crone seers of the clan, and so the chief had made them her constant helpers and aides in matters of governance and safety. Their dogs, twin sleek black mastiffs, lay before the desk and lifted their heads to Akamaru as Kiba and him approached.

"You called?" Kiba gruffed. The Inuzuka didn't bow or stand on formality like the other clans, and preferred actions and direct speech.

"Aye, I bloody well did" Tsume, the chief of the clan and mistress of the fang, queen of the Blood Pit, looked up to her son with a scowl. The scroll before her was rolled wide and marked with a strange alphabet that looked like scratches into rock – Clawspeak, an Inuzuka code which only children of the clan was allowed to learn. Her stare was uncompromising and Kiba met it as long as he could before he looked away to the floor, and when she spoke her voice was bone-hard. "Do I look like my surname is Akimichi, boyo?"

Well, you've been putting on weight, ma. Or at least, that was what he would have said hadn't he been terrified of his mother and wary of the mood she was in. "Nah, you don't... chief".

"Do I look like I stuff my face with whatever shite is put before me?" she growled further as she stood, her scarred battle hound Kuromaru laying on the floor beside her in casual disinterest. "Do look like I'm some fucking tub of lard that accepts your fucking lies without complaint?!"

"Chief-" Akamaru whined, his sensitive ears hurting from the shouting, but Kuromaru lifted his head from where he lay and fixed the much younger dog with a stare that told him to fuck up and take it like a wolf.

"This" Tsume held up the scroll into the air "this is the last fucking time I was lied to. Do you know what this is?!" Kiba did. He had seen that scroll before, the one marked with the name "Report: Operation Boar Hunt". It documented the last few hours of the life of Inuzuka Kawa from the perspective of the one that had killed him; Tsume herself. Kiba had read it a couple of dozen times since he found out who Kawa really was.

"Aye" he replied shortly. It was a so called 'Pure Operation': clan leaders could apply to the Hokage's office, or directly to the Hokage themselves if they were given the opportunity, to seek permission to root out dissent or traitors from within the clan. Tsume had conducted such an operation against Kawa... but little had Sandaime known that reasons she gave for seeking to kill the man had been completely fabricated.

"Do you really now?" she glared back at him, expecting a longer answer. "Then tell me!"

"It's the mission report that says how you killed my father" Kiba replied in a forcefully level tone.

Tsume narrowed her eyes at his words. "It's the tale of how I dealt with the last man that lied to me" she growled darkly. "I bore the man two children, birthed in pain you could never understand, and gave him the best years of my life, and how did he repay me? By whoring around with some Yamanaka slut!" Everyone else in the village were told that Kawa had simply been scarred away by Tsume. The rest of the village had been lied to. "If I knew that both of his offspring wouldn't be worth an ounce of stale shite between them I wouldn't have bothered in the first place!"

"Mother-" Her words cut deeply, wrenching into the very heart of his being, but he was given no time to defend himself as her tirade went on.

"One becomes a fucking vet and spends her time forgetting her heritage, and the other" her finger snapped out to point to Kiba with all the authority of fate itself "the other keeps the biggest rebalancing of power in this damn village's history from my ears! Your own damn classmate's got a Kekkei Genkai, and you've been secretly tasked with being his guard and triggering his power?! You didn't think this information would be useful in any damn sense?! The political ramifications of this could be the death of thousands!"

"I-" Damn it, what was he supposed to say to that? A simple 'sorry' would've just sounded false.

"But it's not the fact that you agreed to be part of this mess that irks me" she snarled as her anger slowly began to betray a hurt. "It's the fact that you lied, Kiba. You kept this from me, your own mother. We're a family, boyo. If you can't trust family..." Tsume sat back down, suddenly wary as all hell, every single one of her years now etched clearly onto her face.

"I was under orders, ma" he said finally. "I wanted to tell you, but... Kakashi-sensei risked his head just by telling the eleven of us and our teachers. If I told you too... he'd get his head lopped off".

"And there's the crux of the matter" she sighed and put the edge of her palm to the centre of her forehead. "At the same time I'm pissed at you for keeping this from me I can't help but be proud. You stuck your neck out for your comrades and put the mission ahead of your own clan and kin". She gestured vaguely in the air towards the younger of the two attendants, the silent boy with the shaggy black hair and burn scar along his neck, who took the secret scroll from her hand handed her another, this one written in the common language of Konoha and the world.

"So..." Kiba spoke up, a sudden wave of melancholic relief washing over him. "What's it gonna be, then? Praise or punishment?" Akamaru noticeably relaxed and settled down, Kuromaru giving him a rolling of the eyes.

"That depends" Tsume eyed the scroll in her hands and scrutinised the information contained therein. There was a whole bunch of information about skills and Jutsu and training under different teachers... none of which the Inuzuka as a rule give a care about. "Tell me... what do you think about this Hyōton user, Uzumaki Naruto?" What they cared for were accomplishments, to which the lad certainly was worthy of awe, and character, which she had yet to discern.

"He's a proper gobshite, so he is" Kiba began slowly, weighing every word but careful to only say the truth and nothing but. His mother could smell a lie; it was uncanny. "He eats nothing but ramen, and he's as thick as a porridge tsunami. But... he's got great instincts when it comes to brawling, his courage is bordering, and pretty well past the border to be honest, on insanity, and... he's charismatic. He can make everyone around him run into death itself with just a few words. He leads by example and doesn't even know that he does it. He never complains, and he never breaks a promise, no matter how small".

"Are you in love, lad?" she wondered with an arched eyebrow, and he flinched noticeably.

"Don't be weird, ma! But... he's not just strong, but good. In all of our group... he's top dog. In the Konoha 11, he's the chief".

"Aye" she nodded, satisfied at last with his exhaustion of the subject "and it seems he's next in line to become the big boss around these parts". She studied Kiba's expression. "You're not surprised?"

"As much as he bangs on and on about becoming Hokage?" Kiba scoffed, ignoring the faint pang of pain he felt in the depths of his chest at that. Once, fairly recently in fact, he had clung to the dream of becoming Hokage and showing his teachers and his class who had called him a brute and a sleaze what for and getting all the comely lasses to fawn over him but… He had seen how utterly outclassed he was.

There's only so many times a man can pick himself up from being beaten down… if he wasn't a certain blonde boy wonder, that is.

"Aye, I sure as hell aren't" Kiba went on to his mother. "The tosser never goes back on his word, ever. He'll find a way". He was sure of it. "He's still a gobshite, though".

Tsume looked at him for the longest time in silence, knowing full well what was going on inside his head, until she stood and beckoned him towards the table and her side. Slowly he walked up to it, Akamaru staying behind, until he stood before his mother. "You're an idiot, boyo" she told him shortly before she made an uncharacteristically tender gesture and mussed up his hair with a rub of her hand. "But you're my son. You're hair's getting pretty long, isn't it?"

"Ma" he whined and tried to move away, at which she swatted at him playfully. "But… I still kept this from you. I kept it from the pack…"

"If you're pushing for a punishment, I'll indulge you later… when I know what the hell to do with you" she muttered and moved away from him, looking to her attendants. "Achi, Yachi" the brother and then the sister of the twin pair nodded. "Have the matter protocolled and addend Kiba's testament to the scroll in a Clawspeak postscript".

"Chief" the white-haired siblings went as they collected the scrolls and left the chamber without a second glance, their hounds following shortly after them out the door, showing a glimpse of a no longer grinning Obu before the entrance slid shut and Tsume grew noticeably tense. She withdrew from Kiba and settled against the surface of her desk, fixing her son with flinty eyes.

"Ma…?" Kiba wondered what was wrong. Tsume was a woman of passions, of short tempers and savage cunning, the ideal of what an Inuzuka should be, and he could tell some of her moods. She was worried. Something was amiss. She could show no weakness in front of the clansmen, weaknesses that could lead to her being challenged and brought down by some upstart candidate to the chiefdom. Anger, decisiveness, adoration for her baby boy – these things she could show. But never weakness. Never worry.

"Do you realise what this means?" Tsume asked her son in a low tone, the scars and wrinkles upon her tattooed cheeks standing out prominently. "What this kind of power means in the hands of a boy?"

"Naruto's a good sort-" Kiba began to defend him almost automatically, merely out of habit. One did not speak ill of pack members, after all.

"This has nothing to do with the boy himself" Tsume spoke. "This is about the power that can be awakened within him. That is all it is… and it changes everything. He is an orphan, and so the other clans and families will hound him to become one of theirs and pass his powers into their own future descendants. Shimura, Sarutobi, Aburame, Akimichi, Nara, Hyūga, Yamanaka, the few Senju that are left… even we Inuzuka. They will descend on him like carrion upon a corpse and rip his body to shreds in their pursuit of what lies within him".

"Then" Kiba wondered with a shiver running down his arms and spine "what's the next move?"

"Power" Tsume spoke almost inwardly gazing at that "power can be found in everything. Money, sex, drugs, violence, land, strength, kindness – everything has a power of its own. But the power to actively reshape reality with a flick of the hand, with a thought, the power to best nearly everyone you face, the power to master an entire facet of nature only little seen before… even if it is just the potential to that power, this will get ugly. And the Senju bitch's position grows weaker".

"Is the Hokage alright?" he wondered at her tone.

"No, she's always been weak… given to excess and laziness" Tsume shook her head as if she was speaking to herself. "But as Hokage she saw immediately what this would mean for the village. And under the pressure she had buckled. She's an inch from getting crushed under the weight of what is to come".

"Ma…"

"Strife is coming, Kiba. The kind that was only narrowly averted when we approved the slaughtering of the Uchiha. Civil discord, kinslaying, clans fractured and turned on each other as allegiances and the struggle for power tears the Leaf apart. With that ice of his the boy might have crushed us more soundly than any foreign threat ever could". She leant her head back and took deep breath through her nose. "I smell the winds changing. The winds of war; it smells of blood and burning leaves".

"We can't let this happen!" Kiba cried firmly, and Akamaru gruffed in accord, but their mother shook her head sadly. None of them wanted to fight in and amongst the Pack, but –

"It's inevitable now. It was from the time the power surged within him for the first time. Perhaps it was since his first breath. We can't stop this short of killing him, and with his resourcefulness and friends that's nothing short of impossible. That leaves only one recourse: we make ready for the battle ahead. We stockpile our weapons, train our soldiers and draw our battle lines, form our alliances. I…" she focused on her son again, and he could see the worry in her eyes clearer than ever. "I know you're not the cleverest sort, Kiba, but… when the time has come I need you in this fight with me. I want to know: what do you value at the highest? Comrades, Clan, or Konoha?"

"I-" he opened his mouth to speak and found out that he didn't know the answer, letting only silence pass his lips.

"It's an unfair question to ask, and there's no easy answer" Tsume smiled at him, but there was no warmth in her smile, not in the slightest. "Go sleep on it, will you? Tomorrow your entire project gets buggered with a straight razor, so-"

"Right" Kiba nodded and urged Akamaru along towards the door, walking with a heavy step as his mind milled with all the questions his mother had posed. Perhaps she was just worried. Most likely she was riled up by the musings of the clan heads and the council, and she did have a history of overreacting to things.

Or maybe, just maybe, she was right.

And to Kiba that thought was nearly too horrible to contemplate.

"Ma" he stopped in the door, his hand on the edge of it, making ready to slide it open. "I… I don't know what I'll do if the clan needs me to fight my friends. But… if a war comes, I want to be ready".

"Are you seeking more training, boyo?" His mother's question was level, but intrigued none the less. "What brought this about?"

"My friends are all racing ahead of me" he spoke slowly, wondering if this was all really the right thing to do. "And… if the war comes, I want to be able to help. I want to be of use, to you and the clan. I-"

He flinched as winding noise sounded in the air and a heavy switchblade with an aged bone handle stuck into the frame of the door above his head, the tip of the steel blade digging deep into the wood. "It was your da that made that" Tsume said as Kiba reached out and tore the knife from that wood. "The bone's supposed to be from some rival of his… if that was true what he told me. Bring it, and see me tomorrow night at moonrise. We've plenty of training to do".

"Thanks, ma" Kiba looked down on the switchblade and its slightly curved blade and nodded, folding it shut and putting it in his kunai holster.

"Don't thank me just yet, boyo" she rumbled as he opened the door. "After an hour of training with me you'll wish I never had you, and we'll be training for weeks".

And in nodding again, Kiba took a long breath through the nose. The air of the compound, of Konoha, no longer smelled of tension.

It smelled of the fire and blood to come.

* * *

As Kiba was lectured by his mother many of the other clans, both lesser and greater, were convening regarding the matter that been voiced in the presence of the Hokage that day.

At the Akimichi a celebration was occurring, as there were few matters the Akimichi didn't consider worthy of celebration. Maybe because celebrations meant parties, and parties at the Akimichi compound meant food and alcohol in copious amounts. Chouji was in the centre of all of it, clasped in the arm of his father, a leg of lamb in one hand and a bottle of sake in the other, being praised for being a classmate of the wonder child. He was happy, but couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling that was settling in his stomach like undercooked udon.

The Aburame castle was abuzz – quite literally – but no one was speaking happily or easily, their matriarch having come to the same conclusion as Inuzuka Tsume had. Aburame Shinkano, the queen of the hive that was their clan, brought young Shino before her and her advisors and had him speak to the fullest, pondering the matter as he did. After all, they had little need of such an ability in their clan, as their insects would shy from ice and hate it as they were killed by the cold, but any other clan that gained the power would be a strong potential ally. Perhaps it was time to let go of the Hyūga and Inuzuka and make other arrangements for the future of the clan?

The Sarutobi, Yamanaka, Hyūga and Nara clans were all clamouring in their own very specific way, but all of their clan heads and seniors were reviewing clan registers, family trees and their own bloodline specifications. To a one, all of them on their own, they had all come up with the same plan to gain the powers of the Hyōton, and it wasn't one many of their clansmen, or Naruto for that matter, would appreciate. Ino, for one, didn't like it at all, as she was sitting in the assembly of her clan as the first speaker of the Yamanaka senate laid forth his proposal.

The Shimura met with their allies in a secret chamber below the Shimura clan hold, conversing at length regarding the issues at hand, discussing the best way to face the coming changes that were about to strike their village. They needed to be prepared, for the good of the village. Danzō didn't speak much at that meeting, as was his custom, instead watching and listening while silently scheming. How would he wrest control over the boy from out of the Hokage's hand now? But there was plenty of other roads open to him, and now it was simply a matter of waiting and biding one's time. The rest would follow.

The Hokage Senju herself was sitting drinking with what little remained of her family, yearning for past and friends long lost while her fellows spoke of the glory of the olden days. She missed Shizune so badly that she wanted to cry, but in company like this she never could. She needed her friend, but… has she been driven away forever?

Regardless there was another meeting the following morning, and the course would be set then.

Shizune herself was the one that showed up at Kakashi's door, ringing the doorbell furiously, a messenger bag slung over her shoulder. A bleary-eyed Kakashi, exhausted by his recent fighting and travel and the emotional anguish of having the worst part of the last month repeated back at him, answered the door, sake on his breath for once. Unlike the Akimichi though, he wasn't drinking to celebrate.

"What?" he sighed. "Can't a man forget his misfortunes on his own?"

"You haven't told him, have you?" she asked, and at his silence she knew the answer, causing her to snap. "What the hell, Hatake?! As soon as I overheard my uncle mention this to his cabal of cronies I got off my arse and over here!"

"Well, my one student is about to be reduced to a piece of meat on a fucking slab again, Shizune-san" he spoke bitterly "and he'll never leave his precious village like that other arsehole I taught. So what am I supposed to do? Hole myself up in his apartment and start killing everyone who's sent to get him? I'm just one man".

"No, not anymore" she shouldered her way past him into his flat and gathered his jacket and flack-jacket vest, thrusting them both in his face. "We're going to him. Now".

"So you're with me?" he wondered slowly.

"Better he finds out from people that care about him than those fucking leeches on the council" she hissed. "Hiashi's little union is alright, as is the Ino-Shika-Cho lot, but the rest… my uncle's an arse, and yours is a cock".

"That's an offence to all cocks everywhere" Kakashi replied and pulled on his outer shirt and his vest. "The Hatake leadership is bullshit, and everyone knows it. So then… what's our plan?"

"Weren't you the leader of this whole conspiracy?" she wondered as they left his flat behind after turning off the lights and locking the door. "I mean, it's pretty much your idea from start to finish".

"I'm the man with the concept" he snorted hard as they went through the dimly lit streets of Konoha at night. "I leave the planning to people who aren't going to get everyone killed or turned traitor".

"Don't be so hard on yourself-" she began.

"Save it" he snapped back, and that put a quick end to the subject. "But no, I've no idea of what to do next. I mean… maybe it should be his thing to decide?"

"He'll never go against the village" Shizune informed him shortly as if he didn't already know. "It's not in him. We might convince him it's another training trip to help him master the Hy… his little trick-"

"And leave his friends behind to be slaughtered by an enraged Danzō?" Kakashi arched a lone eyebrow. "He'd never forgive us".

"We might not have a choice" Shizune pressed, a little desperate.

"There's always a choice" he shot back, fiercely determined and not willing to compromise on his ideals. His sensei had taught him that, and if he was to ever help Naruto reach his full potential then he could not be any less than the best in his eyes. "We need… perhaps its best to let him decide for himself".

"You keep saying that as if you expect me to agree" she argued, his voice subdued as they noticed an ANBU patrol passing overhead, speaking too quietly for even the special forces to hear. "He's sixteen, Kakashi-san. His main concerns would, in a sane world, be getting a part-time job at an apprenticeship, wooing girls and not pissing off his parents. But here he is: heir to Hiruzen-sama's and Yondaime-sama's will, defending this village against impossible threats, getting caught up in the backwash of politics… he shouldn't know what to do".

"But he does" Kakashi pointed out.

"And isn't that the most fucked up thing of all?" Shizune shook her head. "He's so wise despite his years and his naïveté. That's what shames me most of all".

"Perhaps that's the point?" Kakashi shrugged as they made their way through the merchant district towards Naruto's flat close to the Hokage tower and the Academy. "A hero that speaks for what's good in the world despite being a little slow and very brash? A hero that despite little talent achieves his dream? A hero that grows up without growing bitter or cynical, a hero that never goes back on his principles?"

"He's not some character in a manga for young boys" Shizune snorted.

"Isn't he?" Kakashi wondered. "Well, obviously not… but he's a bit of an impossibility in this world and this story. Perhaps… perhaps he is too good for this story we're being caught up in now, with Kekkei Genkai, civil strife and war looming on the horizon".

"Most definitely" she agreed reluctantly, slowly. "Do you… do you think this will change him? Make him unlike he was supposed to be?"

"I sure hope not" Kakashi muttered in response to that. "But I've a feeling… the story isn't yet written, and it could go either way. In truth… I hope he doesn't have to suffer more than he already has. But suffering seems to be inevitable in this world of ours".

"Maybe" she agreed again as they turned a corner and the building that housed Naruto's flat came into sight. "What… what do we tell him?"

"I think we should just show him what we know and let him form his own conclusions" he replied. "You brought what you have, didn't you?"

"Yeah" she nodded. They were approaching the steps that led up to the walkway just outside his door, sneaking glances at each other in silence at times, wondering internally if this was a good idea. What they were about to do… it would surely crush his opinions about one of his precious people. It would, perhaps, change how he viewed the world. Would he be the same after this?

In the end, Kakashi pulled the short straw and knocked on the lad's door, Shizune clearing her throat as he did. After some persistent banging, which even roused the neighbours, a clamour of someone stumbling through the dark could be heard within, and the door flung open to reveal a Naruto who wore naught but his pants, looking blinking into the lighted walkway beyond his door. "Naruto-kun" Shizune spoke softly.

"Yo, Kakashi-sensei, Shizune-neesan" Naruto drawled and rubbed his face, too tired to notice their severe demeanours and dark dispositions. "Whaddya want?"

"Naruto-kun" Shizune said again, clearing her throat again, and the lad in question was worried beyond belief at her tone that was so... dissimilar from how she had used to sound. "I've something to show you".

"Can't it wait until morning?" he yawned, and at that her eyes narrowed as she reached down into her carrier bag and pulled out a folder with the words "Arctic Fox" in red across the cover, holding it towards him like she would have held an adder to her breast.

"No" she shook her head firmly. "I think you'll want to see this".

* * *

And scene! Curtains! Actors… take five!

 **A/N:** That took a lot longer than I thought it would, you know. But I contend and blame it on the fact that I've been prepping for a jaw surgery and been busy with school this last week, and so I've been on frankly ridiculously massive amounts of drugs.

Apparently, drugs make me less creative, not more so. How about that? I'm sure there's a lesson to be found in there somewhere… but I can't be asked. And yes, I go to school during the summers. I'm a university student, okay?

Next chapter is, like, half written, and the remainder of this arc is drawn up, so things should progress fairly smoothly from here on out. Also, I've got a new computer (YAAAAAYAAY!). One that isn't, like, made of cheese, so that should make things even faster.

So, until next time, hopefully soon, cheerio!

Read and Review, and DFTBA!


	7. In the hands of the Clans

**A/N:** Ah! I'm so sorry this took so long! I've been finishing the summer term in Uni, gone through surgery, done a whole lot of gardening and… stuff. Real Life does get in the way a lot, huh? Well, anything is real, it can be argued, and so the distinction between fiction and factuality is but a construct – but we can argue existential philosophy elsewhere!

For now, I give you… the next chapter!

* * *

Chapter 7: In the Hands of the Clans

* * *

One of the things Naruto noticed about the folder in his hands was how much it had been censored.

The censoring was in regards to a single piece of information: the identity of his parents. But as that was a large portion of the concluding chapter of the report on him and his physiological state it was… oddly disorienting to see entire paragraphs and even pages consisting of more blacked over lines than readable words. Whenever his parents were mentioned elsewhere it was as Progenitor X, his mother by the use of the word 'her' in the subjective term, and Progenitor Y, his father, and as little else.

Still, what lay before him was obvious… and with a little help from Shizune and Kakashi, even he could understand what it was saying.

In the genes passed down by Progenitor Y the potential for this expression of power has lain dormant since birth. It would seem, by our investigations, that the presence of the Bijū has caused codename: Arctic Fox, to trigger this potential unwittingly. Thus we propose the commencing of the Hyōton Initiative posthaste. See further plans in Appendix 1 and possible future directives in Appendix 2.

But there were no appendixes… not that he had cared the first time he had read the damn thing through. The pictures, the pictures of organs and blood and skin and seal taken by a high definition camera meant to capture the dissection of captured enemy specimens, was of him. That was his own liver on that picture. That was his own heart.

"Huh" he frowned as he held up a picture of a darkly red lump that seemed to be in the midst of a thump when the image was taken, cocking his head to the side as he looked on that picture. "So this is what makes me live-attebayo. Sort of disgusting to look at, actually. Who knew?"

"Naruto-kun" Shizune, who was sitting next to him on the edge of his bed while Kakashi was standing mere feet away in his kitchenette, spoke softly, like a real big sister would. "Are you alright?"

"Do I look alright?" he turned to her and flashed her a grin, his blue eyes rubbed raw, bloodshot and more than a little crazed. "You've got to tell me, because I've no idea-ttebayo. I've been awake for… I don't even know no more".

"Your grammar is slipping" Kakashi noted as he made yet another cup of disgustingly cheap and foul-tasting instant coffee instead of the more common tea.

"I don't give a shite" Naruto looked back to Shizune, lifting a hand to his eyes to find it shaking like an aspen leaf. "How long…?"

"It's nearly dawn" she informed him. "And you haven't had a single sip of coffee-"

"Because it tastes like rubbish" Naruto muttered. "Especially with how Kakashi-sensei makes it".

"No one, not even with your stamina, can go on forever" she told him as if he didn't already know. "And learning this kind of thing… it can be tiresome".

"Learning that your obaachan is just the same as Orochimaru?" Naruto perked an eyebrow. "It doesn't make me tired. It pisses me the fuck off. She likes me – you think I don't notice the way she dotes on me? – so what kind of shite would she do to someone she didn't like as much? If Sakura-chan had a new Kekkei Genkai, or Bushy-brow, or Hinat-" he stopped dead in his words as the anger in him grew too much for civilised utterance. "If Hinata-chan had some new shite in her blood, what kind of thing would the old hag do to her?"

"Aren't you pissed off at her for what she did to you personally?" Even Kakashi was surprised. Even for Naruto this was a little too altruistic to be the same Naruto they had once known.

"I'd prefer it if she staggered the damn thing out and told me the fucking truth-attebayo" he grumbled. "That's what I'd fucking prefer, but I ain't getting that, am I?"

"Naruto, I was there and-" Kakashi spoke, but the look that rose to him from across the room made his words die in his breast. It was the hard, icy stare of blazing, burning blue that he had seen so long ago when his old sensei had fixed his gaze on those he did not approve of. Like father, like son… and blood would always tell.

"Where's the appendix?" he even sounded different as his eyes went to Shizune, and her hand, almost without her prompting, reached for her bag again, pulling out a small bundle of papers whose heading seemed to indicate they were the last and missing pieces to the puzzle.

"I thought it was best to ease you into it" her eyes were fixed on the floor as she handed the folder over while Kakashi too gave her a look. "It's… it's something else". And so Naruto scanned the first page in his hand, the words beneath the short introduction harrowing him down to his soul.

1.1.1: Commencement of Phase 2 of the Initiative. As the subject would be with 98 percent certainty a Kage-level shinobi upon awakening the Hyōton, their strength will need to be out to use right away. A show of force would be recommended, favourably towards Iwagakure or Kirigakure operatives. If the alliance with Sunagakure breaks down then they are a potential target as well. The subject would attack crops and the environment, causing starvation as the harvests are ruined, leading to mass defection and a great drop in morale. In such an occasion an encroachment and overtaking of currently disputed border regions can be readily done.

1.2.1: Commencement of Phase 3: Once the show of force in phase 2 has made our enemies dissuaded from attacking us we will need to maintain our strength. As artificially grown embryos or clones rarely, if ever, have any chakra potential whatsoever, the subject would have to sexually inseminate several succession candidate females (a list of which is included, see below). The application of insemination by force would be acceptable if necessary.

1.2.2: Once insemination is complete chakra would be extracted from the Bijū. This chakra, in small amounts, would then be made to come in contact with the chakra of eventual offspring in virto, ensuring by our now collected data the awakening of the potential within the offspring. The danger to the mothers, of course, is permissible: only a 20 percent chance of death onto exposure by the said demonic chakra. Embryos, meanwhile, would have a 50 percent chance of surviving to the point of birth. If a loss occurs, ergo miscarriage, the candidate mother that has lost the embryo will be put through the first step of phase 3 again until their efforts bears living fruit.

1.2.3: Any products of a successful birthing would be put under the banner of the subsidiary project "Frozen Roots" and raised away from Konoha in an underground facility. See the loyalty manipulation, propaganda insertion and mental indoctrination research conducted by Shimura researchers for the following procedures, documented in detail in the eventual case folders. Eventual inbreeding between these products of the program will ensure a higher concentration of the traits we are seeking. If the power fails to manifest by age 13, the candidates will be placed under observation in solitary confinement, and if no further sign is shown by age 20 they will be considered a failure and terminated. The usefulness of such failures as test subjects are disputable and questionable at best.

1.2.4: Captive kunoichi from hostile forces are included as candidates for phase 3 impregnation, as are all foreign kunoichi and civilian women by default. Female defectors from Konoha will be prioritised and continually put through phase 3 until the point of death. This will serve as their method of execution. Any-

No. He couldn't read this anymore.

Naruto pulled the folder away from his face, his breathing heavy, his hands shaking properly now, and in a rageful gesture he hurled the papers aside, scattering them against the wall beside his bed so that they scattered all over the floor of his flat. His tiredness from before was forgotten now, fully and utterly, as he out his hands to his head. No, he wasn't tired. In fact he was full of energy.

He wanted to go out and hit something. Or someone. Hit them harder than he had ever hit anything else ever before.

Ancestors help him, was this feeling in his heart how it was like to hate?

"The council got a modified report by all accounts" Shizune said slowly "one that did not include the postscript. As far as we can tell, only Kakashi-san, you and I are the ones that know of this outside of Tsunade".

"I heard her talking vaguely of breeding before" Kakashi added sombrely as he watched his student stew in his own torment. "It was just ideas, suggestions, and possible candidates for it. But it seems she included something Orochimaru suggested in his own reports and research on Kekkei Genkai maintenance. I didn't know myself until Shizune-san showed me the other day before we went to Gai's party".

"It's a monstrous suggestion" Shizune shook her head in clear revulsion. "Legalized rape, with every female civilian and foreign kunoichi an acceptable target outside of criminals and specially selected Konoha women? A whole mass of children brought up as brain-washed slaves meant to breed and kill each other like animals… no, not even beasts would be so disgusting".

"There's worse stuff in it" Kakashi noted "arguably. A couple on controlling you, actually, and how to kill you if you get unruly. It's all… suggestions, plans, concepts. I doubt very much of it is anything more than an attempt to see what options they have. Still, to even think of such solutions as viable-"

"Fuck up" Naruto growled like a wounded fox on its last leg, wanting to stick his fingers in his ears and scratch and pick and tear until blood came out and he couldn't hear any more of this ever again. "Just fuck up and stop talking!"

"Naruto-kun-" Shizune reached for him, but her jerked away, hurt burning in his eyes.

"Why did you show this to me, neesan?" he asked, sounding, for the first time in ages, like the child he actually was. "I… I didn't want to know. I mean I – I wanted to know, but not… not this".

"One possible plan had you establish a client village on Nanakusa Island inhabited only by female shinobi from all over the elemental nations" Kakashi wouldn't let up, mercilessly going on. "A beach-side harem, essentially. I'd prefer that one, personally… but without fighting, cut off from your dreams and your comrades facing Akatsuki I don't think you would".

"Kakashi-san" Shizune warned.

"Yet another was more economically viable. Tsunade would hire you out to clans and other villages like a breeding stallion in return for profit. After all: if power is matched then it might not as well exist at all, and if everyone had it" Kakashi pressed on as he watched his disciple curl in on himself in a rocking motion. "The Leaf would be rich, you'd get to sleep with all the noble lasses, and have plenty of children and comfort. But never be Hokage, never marry, and never have a real family-"

"Fuck up, sensei!" Naruto pleaded, the tears threatening to spill over from his already misting eyes. "Just stop it! Why won't you shut up? Why?!"

"Because you need to see" Kakashi spoke darkly and reached down as he placed himself before Naruto, reaching down to pick up a single paper from the folder: a list of names of women reduced to nothing but breeding stock. "This" Kakashi flicked the paper with his index finger so it made a small bang of a noise "this is what she'd reduce us to. Konoha, the spirit of the hallowed ancestors, our Will of Fire… this is what Tsunade, Danzō, Orochimaru – even Sasuke if he got the chance! – would make of it all. In their pursuit of safety and power, seeking to keep us strong, they would destroy all that we are".

"It's not the village that's broken, Naruto-kun" Shizune assured him in an almost motherly tone. "The Hokage before her… they are proof of that". She thought back to that one day when Kakashi had broken into her home and made her see the truth. "It's not the institutions that are faulty – it rarely is – but the people leading them".

"We need a new Hokage, Naruto" Kakashi crouched down before the boy and looked deep into his cerulean eyes. "You. We need you to become who you were always meant to be" he put the paper away and took his student's hand. "We need you to lead the Leaf to a better tomorrow".

"I-" a shiver went through him, and as he only had done a few times in his life he felt truly and utterly powerless. "What if I can't?" he asked softly. "What if-"

"Don't doubt yourself" Kakashi reprimanded. "I never have doubted you or your potential. I believe, with all my heart, that yours is the Mandate of Heaven. I believe in you".

"And so do I" Shizune laid a hand upon his shoulder.

"What do we do?" Naruto asked slowly then. "Where do we go from here?"

"For now we wait" Shizune seemed to take the lead, remembering Kakashi's hesitance against being in charge of things such as these. "There will be a meeting with the council today, and without knowing what they decide we will need to hold back. After that… we make alliances. We appeal to your friends. We bring the truth into light. And then we make sure we-" she stiffened, her hand shooting from Naruto's shoulder, a flinty sharpness in her stare as she looked out the window to the dawning sky over Konoha.

"ANBU" Kakashi noted, him sensing it as well. "Heading this way. Shizune-san – you should gather up the papers. Naruto and I'll go meet them. If they are after you, maybe we can buy you some time". Naruto, having served under Kakashi and knowing full well what tactic his sensei had in mind, summoned a clone by a simple command and a gesture, the carbon copy of Naruto nodding as he was ordered to stay by Shizune's side. Kakashi readied himself for battle as Naruto pulled on his signature orange tracksuit and strapped his shuriken and kunai holsters and pouches to his body in smooth and ready motion, every inch of him a warrior born. Silently he and Kakashi left his home in Shizune's hand, stepping out into the Konoha daylight.

"Where?" Naruto wondered as they, in seeming calm, made their way past his neighbours' doors and down onto the streets beyond his flat's apartment complex. Naruto, unlike many of his peers, was absolutely rubbish at sensing the chakra of others, and so trusted his sensei implicitly as the other secretly scanned the streets.

"On the rooftops to the left, just out of sight" Kakashi muttered from out of the corner of his mouth as not to arouse needless suspicion. "I sense their intent. They will approach us in three… two… one".

"Uzumaki-san, Kakashi-senpai" a group of ANBU, cloaked and masked and armed to the teeth, appeared before the two in a flash, and at least Kakashi had the presence of mind to appear surprised. "A hearing regarding your recent endeavours is taking place at the Hokage tower" their bird-masked leader spoke. "Your presence is required at once".

"Troublesome" Kakashi made his best Shikamaru impression while silently urging Naruto to do the same. "I'd like to spend my day reading porn instead, but hey, what're you gonna do? Come on, Naruto-kun".

"Sure" Naruto, on the other hand, had a hard time acting as if everything was fine as they followed the silent agents of the Hokage towards the not so distant tower, his thoughts dark. After all he had read, all he had found out during the last few hours… no, he wouldn't succumb to despair. He would be Hokage. He would be the best damn Hokage there ever was.

He swore it.

When they arrived at the tower they were not shown into the Hokage's office on the top floor but rather the council chambers on the first sublevel, and Kakashi and Naruto were not the only ones present at the hearing. Every single one of the Konoha 11 and their sensei, as well as Ebisu and the Konohamaru corps, were lined up in the centre of the chamber under the scrutinising stares of the clan heads and three representatives of the civilian assembly. In the long line Naruto saw uncertainty, resolve and even fear in the faces of his friends, and so he stepped up to one end of the line, placing himself next of Konohamaru and Hinata while, as one, everyone looked to him. He flashed them, particularly Konohamaru and his two young accomplices, a reassuring grin while, quietly and unnoticed by all but two, taking Hinata's hand.

Hinata could tell that there was a mood about him when he first walked in through the gilded double chamber doors, but that he was affecting the outward appearance of his usual jovial self as to make the rest of them feel better. That frightened her, but when she softly felt her fingers enveloped by rougher and stronger digits her eyes shot wide and her fears left her as a hint of a blush came into her cheeks. They were holding hands! Ah! It was sort of bad timing for such a thing, but still… Yes!

And in his seat at the council, Hyūga Hiashi's pale Byakugan eyes first widened in surprise then narrowed in a thoughtful expression, only to settle into a forcefully level state as he held back a victorious grin. Maybe…

"Well then" Shimura Danzō, as first speaker of the clans, sitting next to jōnin commander Nara Shikaku, civilian assembly chairman Haruno Kizashi and the stone-faced Hokage at the four head seats in the chamber, opened the inquiry. "Now that everyone subject to this hearing are in attendance, let it commence. Nara – as these people's military commander, the first query is yours".

"Ah" the Nara scoffed and looked to the papers that lay on the table before him, knowing, shrewd as he was, that he had been told far from everything. "Hatake-san" he asked Kakashi first, as he was the leader of the project "what do you believe is the goal of this 'Project Hyōton'?"

And as Kakashi opened his mouth began the seven most mentally gruelling yet boring hours of Naruto's life.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Naruto's apartment Shimura Shizune was moving about, gathering the papers that had been thrown far and wide by the force of the boy resident's rage at her own pace. She could tell that the previously threatening presences of the ANBU were far away, leaving her in no panic yet still in a slow boil of hurry.

She needed to be out of there soon – or at least, she needed to hide the documents somewhere where only Naruto, she and Kakashi would think to look. After all, Naruto was infamously loud and brash and considered more than a little thick. The very idea of him hiding incriminating evidence in his flat seemed ridiculous, which made it the perfect place to hide just such documents. And she knew he would keep this secret. After all, she knew that he was very much stronger than anyone else and that he carried all their hopes on his shoulders now.

He would not falter under this burden. He would carry it stalwartly. He had to.

And even if she hadn't believed in him, she had no other choice now. She needed him to restore the village to the glorious thing it had been in the times of old, not stagnated as it had been under the later years of the near powerless Sandaime or as morally bankrupt as it had become under the leadership of the Godaime.

The older people of the village still remembered the five years during which Yondaime had been in power. They remembered the government initiatives and restoration projects, the competitions and the diplomatic and expansionist ventures. Yondaime had increased the village's status and wealth by uping the quota of missions undertaken and completed while still promoting peace between the nations, establishing trade connections with Kaminari no Kuni and the far distant Land of Snow. Research had been driven, skills and techniques promoted, the Academy curriculum changed and government stipends issued to any civilian parent who put their child through Shinobi education. His rule had been a golden age – a golden age that had ended in fire much too soon.

Shizune wanted to believe that Naruto could usher in that time again. After all, she knew who his father had been, and so did a select few in Konoha. She wanted to believe that he could set things right once again.

And as she gathered up the last of the papers she looked around the room, thinking that yes, he very might well be the one. He kept mementoes and pictures of friends and comrades at the most prominent places in the room, and despite the general mess he seemed to keep the flat clean and aired out. Even as young as he was he was self-sufficient, strong, ambitious and goal-minded – he could very well be the one.

But, she thought as she hid the folder in the bottom of a drawer filled with crumpled socks, will he rise to the challenge?

And that… that was the most important question of all.

* * *

As the ones on the floor of the hearing chamber weren't allowed to speak unless asked to after their interrogations had been heard and their testimonies given they could only listen in horror as the worst possible turn of events was decided upon.

"Then is the council in accord?" Danzō asked the Shinobi portion of the arbiters in the stands, having firmly verbally beaten down his opponents in their ranks. Hiashi had proven troublesome, arguing fiercely against the best course of action: binding the Asset called Uzumaki Naruto to the village using some of the Shimura loyalty seals, making him undergo long periods of physical examination, both internal and external, before putting him on observation and using him as the excellent weapon and breeding stock that he was. He would be disbarred from politics and offices of import, being too important for their village to be allowed to draw open attention to himself, but he would be permitted to take several civilian women or unaffiliated kunoichi as his mistresses and breed plenty of offspring under the Clan Restoration Act, his offspring being handled by the state until such a time that their abilities manifested.

That Hyūga Hiashi would oppose the motion was a given – his clan was insular and believed in the entitlement that clandom and blood line abilities gave, making him drive the motion that Naruto should be raised as a hero and not as the resource that he was. Danzō detested Hiashi, for despite the sometimes horrendous things he had done to increase the power and the wealth of the Shimura clan all throughout his life his clan would always be considered second-rate compared to the so called "noble" Hyūga.

A little less expected was the fact that while Nara and Akimichi remained undecided Yamanaka allied with the Hyūga in the motion, making Danzō's suggested course of action dangerously posed on uneven ground. If the Aburame joined that phalanx too then he would have to put the thing to a more involved vote which would take many more hours, if not days, as they hammered out the minute details of other motions until a course of true action could be decided. If they took the momentum away from him and gave the other clans allowance to make their voices heard then the Shimura would lose their chance to seize the advantage and increase their power further. He could not allow that.

So Danzō shattered the Yamanaka speaker, driving Inoichi to see the light, and together with his allied and vassal clans he peppered Hiashi with so many arguments against his suggestion that the man could do nothing but sit back and work through them one by one. Theirs was a tactic of dismissal, moving as quickly as one possibly could in politics. The allies of the Shimura knew that Danzō recognized his friends and would share in power gained once seized.

However, as Danzō spoke to finalise the motion and giving a vote, needing only a slim majority to pass it and all but certain of victory at that juncture, a wrench was thrown in the proverbial works as opposition came from an unexpected direction.

"No" Naruto interrupted firmly, to which all eyes in the chamber turned to him, startled by his suddenly loud and almost imperious tone. "I'm not doing this".

"Excuse me?" the Shimura clan head wondered. "Would you care to repeat that?"

"I'm not doing this" Naruto repeated as he was bid, taking a step to stand in front of the others in his line. "I'm not becoming someone's plaything-attebayo. I won't stay down and let others die fighting my fight against Akatsuki – like Smoker-taicho did! I won't be locked in! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and my dream is to become Hokage!"

And as the people around him stared at him, stunned, Danzō felt a shiver run down his back at the iron stare of that boy.

This lad… he was something else entirely.

"I am inclined to agree with him" Akimichi Chouza spoke in a low rumble as he shifted in his seat to the far right, and by that Danzō knew the battle was all but lost. If Akimichi gave voice then his vassal, much more influential than himself, would always support that voice in political matters.

"So am I" Nara Shikaku nodded at the words of his peer and friend. "Reluctant as we may be to see it, our village and our way of life is under siege by Akatsuki and the man that claims to be Uchiha Madara. Naruto is the best weapon we have against the enemies we currently face".

"He should be allowed to roam free" Inuzuka Tsume concurred, and with the voice of three major clans on Naruto's side of the argument swiftly swung in his favour. The situation was getting out of hand… Danzō could tell that the powerful Namikaze charisma had been passed along to the boy from his father along with the Kekkei Genkai that was tearing their village apart.

He needed things to come his way, but as Yamanaka and then Hyūga spoke against his motion that was a distant possibility at best. Was there any way to recover the headway he had possessed before?

Maybe…

"Perhaps you have the necessary strength of character to nurture this gift on your own" Danzō acted as if the boy had been pleading instead of stating dissentious intent and as if he had been merciful and gracious enough to listen. "I cannot say that I approve" but I know you've won this round, boy "but I've caught a glimpse of your will of fire. Understand that without the sanction of the council, the best we can do is terminate the program for the foreseeable future and remove you from the mission roster. This will ensure you have the proper possibility to unlock your potential without distractions. All in favour of this motion?"

The clans loyal to him did not dispute him, and the others agreed readily before any of the people out on the floor of the chamber had any idea of what was going on.

Kakashi was, as he walked out of the meeting after it had been ended behind Naruto, both relieved and distressed. "That could have been worse" he said to his student as he pulled him aside and made towards the far entrance.

"Why?" Naruto gripped his teacher's sleeve and held him back. "What's going on? What happened?"

"The council was swayed by your verbal badassery-"

"I don't think that's a real word" the blonde interrupted.

"It doesn't matter, does it? The council was swayed, but only a little. They're not locking you in… but they're not letting you outside either". As Naruto cocked his head to the side Kakashi understood that the boy certainly did not understand. "They're taking you off missions and put you under escort, but you're allowed to go free within Konoha".

"No missions?" he frowned. "But… but how am I supposed to pay the sodding bills? Buy ramen? Eat?!"

"You know, for one moment it's all 'I won't go back on my word-attebato'" Kakashi mocked Naruto's softer and a little more musical voice nasally. "But the next it's all 'Feed me!', and you proceed to powerslam everyone that stands between you and Ichiraku Ramen. It's quite a shift in tone, you know".

"You're one to talk about inconsistent tone with the way you've been going on lately, sensei" Naruto pointed out, but then shook his head and got back to the a little terrifying conditions that lay before him. "But… If I'm off the mission roster, what am I to do for money?"

"Moonlight as a social worker?" Kakashi suggested, but then, as a voice called from further down the tunnel for Naruto to wait up, an idea occurred to him.

"Yo!" Kiba greeted Naruto with a wave as he approached alongside an expressionless Shino and a slightly blushing Hinata. "So, what's up with that stuff before?"

"Well, at least you guys don't need to hang around my sorry arse no longer" he grinned at them, but to his slight… apprehension? Surprise? He had no idea of what to feel about the fact that none of them seemed very keen to be away from him.

Little did he know that Kiba and Hinata could feel that things were spiralling out of control, and wanted to stay by the little safety his presence seemed to offer, while Shino had gotten a long talking too by the matriarch of his clan the night before, informing him of his new duty: stay close to Uzumaki, and look for weaknesses in their allies.

"Hey, don't look like you just got barred from Ichiraku's!" Naruto exclaimed. "Come on! At least you lot still get to go on missions. I'm stuck in the village until… until those cantankerous old farts decide I get to go outside of it again-attebayo".

"You're allowed to get a job, right mate?" the Inuzuka asked as Akamaru walked up to sit panting on the ground beside them, his head buffing on Hinata as he tried to get her to pet him. "I mean, otherwise you'll be pretty strapped".

"Y-you could become a teacher, Naruto-kun" Hinata suggested while she scratched Akamaru behind the ears, electing a pleased grumble from the horse-sized dog.

"Dickless as a teacher?" Sai asked as he and Sakura joined the little gathering, Sakura greeting Kakashi even as the white-haired man in question quietly bid his leave and went to speak with a certain Urmino Shinobi. "The poor, poor children".

"Don't be such a massive buzzkill" Chouji went as his team too came to stand by Naruto and the others, Neji, Lee and Ten-Ten following shortly after. "Right, by the way – anyone feel like getting plastered? Me and these two" he jerked his thumb at Ino and Shikamaru "were heading down to the pub".

"What's the occasion?" Sakura wondered.

"Are you even of legal age?" Neji questioned from the side.

"Of course we are!" Ino shot back at the Hyūga heir. "We're all legally adults, right? Because we're shinobi, unless you forgot? And we were thinking of celebrating a job well done and Akatsuki scum well shredded by getting pissed".

"I could go for a drink or two" Kiba nodded, Hinata agreeing to come along too after she had fetched her handmaidens while Shino, Sai, Lee and Neji respectfully declined. "How about you, blondie?"

"I-" Naruto was about to say that he was underage, and that he needed to go training anyway, but thoughts of training led to thoughts of the Ice that lay suppressed within him and thoughts of that led to remembering what he had learnt that morning. "I say 'fucking aye'! I feel the need – the need for sake-attebayo!"

"That's the spirit, Naruto-kun!" Chouji exclaimed and laid an arm around Naruto's shoulder. "Let's get something to eat first, alright? Then, tonight, I shall show you the meaning of drinking deeply".

"If you're heading to a barbecue place, I'm on that shite like water on rock" Kiba followed after, followed in turn by a reluctantly sighing Shikamaru, the Nara busy making strategies in his head while the other boys said their peace and went about their intended business, leaving the girls on their own.

"Well, I need to go home and freshen up a bit first" Ino said to the other young women. "We're supposed to meet at O'Taku's at six. It's by that tepanyaki place on the corner of Rokutam and Tobirama Street that keeps open around the clock".

"Sweet" Ten-Ten nodded, and so did the other girls. Meanwhile, in the distance, Chouji could be heard saying something fateful to Naruto.

"Say, Naruto-kun… have you ever heard about a drink called Guinness?"

* * *

"Ah!" Naruto exclaimed as he put the glass down whilst making a face, his upper lip coated in white foam and a slightly bitter taste upon his lips. "Pissing blimey! It's like drinking an entire loaf of dark bread-attebayo!"

"Where the hell do you get this sort of stuff, Chouji?" Kiba wondered with a grimace while Akamaru happily slurped up the same dark ale from a bowl placed on the floor next to their wooden table. O'Taku's Pub and Bar was a fairly odd establishment in Konoha's business district, owned and operated by a strange foreign man with rounded eyes, freckled skin and hair the oddest shade of red anyone of them had ever seen who spoke their language oddly like he had only just learnt it. Most patrons were common workers from Konoha's logging for construction industry and a few of the younger Akimichi, which many of the more normal patrons would grumble about. After all, most shinobi would drink at the shinobi owned and operated establishments closer to the town centre rather than to muscle their way in amongst the civilians, and the fact that even thirteen year olds only had to flash their stupid headbands to be allowed in without being carded was another burr in their collective boots.

"It's some brew native Taku-san's homeland, I think, and I believe it's the drink of gods" Chouji speculated as he put their tall glasses aside and put the three bottles of sake he had bought at the centre of the table along with a dozen or so cups. "The time is… seven-fifty-two. The girls should be here any moment"

"Why do women have to be so troublesome and late?" Shikamaru grumbled.

"Showing up to a pup-crawl right on time is bad form, Shikamaru" the Akimichi lectured sternly. "As well as it is to do it without dressing up first. By the way: how does the blazer fit, Naruto-kun?"

"Like it isn't orange enough" came the mutter in response. Chouji had told them the plan was to start at one pub and subsequently work themselves towards Club HI, the biggest nightclub in Konoha, and that it would simply not do for them to go on such a venture without being dressed for the occasion. And the Akimichi were the biggest eaters, drinkers and partiers around – so they were bound to know plenty about fashion… or so Chouji had claimed. Therefore he had been in charge of that evening's dress code: black slacks and black leather shoes, polished to a shine, and black blazers kept open and arms rolled back to show off Kiba's tattoos, Naruto's smooth tan skin and the other two's fencing and knifing scars. The sole change they kept to their clothes between them were the colour of their shirts – Shikamaru got the Nara shadowy shade of grey on his shirt, buttoned all the way up to the neck, while Kiba got Inuzuka scarlet and Chouji got the Akimichi shade of rosewood red. Naruto's shirt was, naturally, orange, and unbuttoned a ways down to show his necklace, Shodaime's necklace, where it touched to his tan skin. But being the tallest of the boys yet not as stocky as Kiba or Chouji made it difficult to find a blazer that fit even reasonably well in the Akimichi wardrobes. "I look like a fucking ponce-attebayo".

He wished he was Akamaru. Akamaru didn't have to dress up for shit. No one ever put a stupid blazer on a dog.

"You know how many looks you've gotten from the civilian lasses at the table yonder?" Kiba drawled from his seat next to Naruto in their booth that was very much too big for just four people, indicating a table at the far side of the rustically furnished and traditionally decorated room. "A little older than us, but not too much. The redhead has been giving you the come hither-thing, you know? We should go over, maybe say 'charmed'-"

"Dude, just settle" Shikamaru groaned as he idly tapped the surface of the table before him, busting for a cigarette. Damn, he had started smoking as an homage to his sensei and after only six days he was addicted. Stupid troublesome drugs. "The girls will get here any minute, so if you're busting for female companionship-"

"Ah nae" Kiba waved dismissively. "I'm just weighing my options here, Nara. Besides, it's not like I've got any game in our little super-squad" he added a bitterly, and Chouji, being the perfect host he was, poured him a generous drink of sake in a cup and handed it to him. "Cheers mate" Kiba toasted the Akimichi and then drained his cup in a single draught. "Where was I? Oh, yeah – there're Ten-Ten, Sakura, Ino and Hinata in our age group, unless you count Neji and his luxurious hair. And Ten-Ten's got the hots for wonderboy Hyūga, Sakura is a lost cause – don't even get me started on that - and Hinata's head over heels in love with captain oblivious over here".

"Hm?" Naruto blinked as Kiba jerked a thumb his way.

"Spot on reaction, mate. Anyway; among us only Ino's completely unattached, and since I wouldn't mack on her tonight even if she begged me-"

"Why not?" Chouji asked, his brow creasing into a frown. "Something wrong with our teammate?"

"It's one of those troublesome Inuzuka dog-territorialism things" Shikamaru made a vague gesture to accompany his words. "He thinks we're going to be protective of her, or that one of us are after her, so he stays away from another pack's habitat – right?"

"You're dead on" Kiba nodded.

"Nothing but Ino and you are keeping you from getting your mack on with her, mate" Chouji shook his head a little sadly. "She can handle herself – hell, she probably pulls our sorry bums out of the fire most of the time – and she's… her personality is an acquired taste, one I don't want to acquire".

"She's loud, obnoxious, vapid and as shallow as a skinned man floating face-down in a koi pond" Shikamaru clarified. "You want to think some shapely buttocks excuses all that? The go ahead, and Godspeed you mad bastard".

"So you two aren't going to get your nark on if I try to mack on Ino-chan?" Kiba grinned a little savagely, to wit the both of them shrugged. "Sweet. Oi, blondie" he looked to Naruto "what about you and Hinata-chan?"

"Hm?" Naruto shook himself out of his silent ponderings to find the others waiting for an answer, and so decided to joke a little with them. "What? I wasn't listening, because you guys were boring me-attebayo".

"You certainly don't pull any punches" Shikamaru sighed and pulled a tooth-pick out of one pocket, shoving it towards his mouth and taking it between his lips like a substitute for his real cigarettes. "What's up with you and Hinata-san? Are you just 'it's complicated', or are you halfway to kids and mortgages?"

"Dunno" Naruto shrugged, and got long look for his honesty. "What? We don't even know each other that well-attebayo. I mean, we talked about it the other night, but we didn't have time to finish… talking".

"Talking" Kiba wondered "or talking?"

"Talking" Naruto assured with a roll of the eyes. Though they had almost been kissing… that had seemed to happen quite a few times with them, as if fate itself had something against the two of them actually getting past embarrassed conversations and blushing looks. "I… I've just got so much shite going on right now that's dangerous to be around, and… if I get with her, I can't just say 'thanks for last night' and jog on right out the door-attebayo".

"Commendable" Chouji noted "but pointless. Life's short for people like us, Naruto-kun. And if we don't just do what we want without our fears holding us back we'll end up like Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei – one dead and one consigned to a life of regret".

"You should just seize the moment, man" Kiba pressed, as was his wont as president of the NaruHina fanclub. "'Cause tomorrow never comes again".

"I-" Naruto looked to each of them in turn, wondering how many litres of piss they were taking, until his eyes fell on Shikamaru.

"What've you got to lose at this point, you troublesome git?" was what the Nara asked, and so Naruto found no solace in his friends and was forced to be introspective to make sense of the chaos inside of him.

Meanwhile, at the bar, two older men were overhearing their discussion. "Naze kono koto de son'nani Igirisu no surangu wa arimasu ka?" the one man asked over his drink, shaking his head at the state of youth today.

"Shirimasen" the other answered with a shrug. "Eigo ga okashīdesu". They both failed to realise that language is an abstract, evolving and infinitely personal thing, and that everyone were given to translate or work their own habits into what they do, say, and write.

Also, their Japanese was shite.

Naruto was given a drink by Chouji and promptly sipped on it, deeply consigned to his deep thoughts. Hinata… she was pretty enough, he supposed. No, more than that: she was beautiful, fair - fantastically, mindbogglingly, paraecclesiastically gorgeous she was! And she was kind of awesome, having been one of his toughest opponents ever when he sparred with her the other day, yet she was kind, dedicated and humble, gentle and intelligent in the extreme. Perhaps… perhaps having a more permanent relationship with her wouldn't be so bad. He would be putting her in danger, but… what had she said again? "I'm a big girl" in such an innocently innuendo-laced tone? Maybe she could help him master his talents and… having her around wasn't so bad. She was certainly smarter than him, so she could surely help him-

"The girls are here!" Chouji exclaimed, throwing Naruto out of his ponderings, and he looked up - to have his breath taken away.

Sakura looked... Nice, he guessed? Her party clothes weren't very much different from her regular mode of dress, with a skirt and top in common reds and pinks and a jacket in red thrown over her slender shoulders. Ino wore the very same jacket in purple, and the fact that she and Sakura had seemed to dress alike to match in everything but colour made the contrast between their body types all the more jarring. Ten-Ten, of course, wore a mandarin dress in white with reddish brown flowers etched along the hem that flowed down around her knees, a kunai strapped to her thigh beneath the dress and her hitai-ite worn as a belt in Ino's fashion. Even the one of Hinata's handmaidens that had come along, Hiroko, the vapid one, had gotten herself spruced up - her lavender headband bindle with Hinata's personal crest on it held back her hair and covered her curse seal and the hitai-ite held her slender flowered dress tight and snug at the waist, showing that she had about as many curves as Sakura... At thirteen. All of them had make up on, all of them enhancing their cheeks and their eyes to some additional definition.

"Well, you lot are striking tonight" Kiba grinned and looked to the man beside him. "Right, Naruto?" Naruto didn't seem to hear, though, staring awed right ahead with an enraptured expression. "Dude?" Kiba waved his hand before the blonde's eyes but got no reaction. That was because Naruto was busy staring.

At her. Hinata.

She wore no make-up except for around her pale eyes, as if to make them even more striking and otherworldly, but it wasn't her face that drew Naruto's gaze but the way she was dressed. Gone was the frumpy sweater and the bulky clothes that hid her figure, replaced by a knee-length but long-sleeved women's yukata, her headband with the Konoha sigil on it used as an obi to tie it together. But that yukata was indigo blue as opposed to frumpy and grey and purple, the hems darker and the silk fabric pressed with ume blossom patterns as it flowed snugly over her skin and the very ample body that was hidden beneath. Her legs weren't bare but clothed in sheer black stockings, her feet slid into a pair of high-laced sandals, but Naruto wasn't looking at her feet, for the things the yukatta tight binding did to her cleavage was… in his own honest opinion… fantastic.

"Hello?" Kiba waved his hands before Naruto's face but got no further reaction. Which was to be expected, given the thoughts he was having.

Some distant and isolated part of Naruto's mind wondered if he had developed a complex about the female form, as he had never been breastfed by his mother… whoever that was. And since he had grown to maturity – relatively – under the most perverted man in their hemisphere his sexual norms might have been considered to be… warped. Verily, was the remainder of his mind so obsessed with ample cleavage because he was secretly longing for a mother-figure? While the small intellectual part of him mused on that Naruto was busy staring at the fish-net mesh clad bosom shown generously by the tying together of the yukatta, his mouth actually watering. He was disgusted with his own lechery, having suddenly turned into ero-sennin… but he couldn't look away.

"Oi, Naruto-kun!" Chouji poked him in the side, making his eyes break away from the heavenly visage of HInata's huge tracts of 'land' to stare wide of eye at the Akimichi. "Are you still with us?"

"Hm!" Naruto tried to speak, but as he opened his mouth no words came out, making him frown. "Hm! Tch hm!" He sighed exasperatedly and sunk back in his seat, putting to fingers in his mouth in an effort to make his lamed tongue move like it should again.

"Hinata-chan, you done the impossible!" Ino giggled to the Hyūga heiress whose face was currently taking on a distressingly scarlet colouring. "He can't say anything!"

"He's literally speechless!" Kiba snickered, and despite Naruto's pouting in the depths of the booth the others – excepting Hinata – were greatly amused at that. The young woman herself was idly fidgeting with her voluminous sleeves, feeling flustered and hot after having her beloved's gaze resting so intently at her. Dressing up like that… it was all Ino's idea. She said it had been to draw Naruto's gaze, but now it was actually drawn- "Alright, Hinata and… whatever your name was" Kiba looked to Hiroko, who was at best a tertiary character and at worst little more than literary set-dressing, as he climbed out of his seat. "You take that spot, yeah? Ino-chan sits next to me-"

"You wish, dog-face" Ino drawled and slid into the seat between Shikamaru and Chouji, laying her arms around the shoulders of her teammates. "I'm sitting with my boys".

"We're not your boys!" Chouji protested. "Are we, Shikamaru?"

"Yes, we are" Shikamaru sighed as Sakura and Ten-Ten took their seats on the edges while Hinata, a little hesitantly but also eagerly, took her seat next to Naruto, her handmaiden filling in after her.

"Drinks, anyone?" Chouji wondered and indicated the bottles and the cups he had gotten, to which he begun to pour for all of the five girls. "Ino, Sakura-chan, Ten-Ten-chan, Hinata-san and…" he looked to the last girl that was sitting next to Hinata. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name".

"Hiroko" the branch family Hyūga inclined her head with a smirk. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance. Normally I wouldn't be allowed to speak to anyone but Hinata-sama, but since I don't give a toss about the rules and the worry-wart isn't around to cramp my style" she shrugged and urged Chouji to pour her a healthy measure of sake. "Cheers".

"Cheers!" the others replied and drank, toasting their youth and putting the troubles of the day out of their minds. Or at least, Naruto tried to, but as he looked around the table he couldn't help but to think of things he had learnt that morning and the quite arduous tasks that lay before him – awake his Hyōton affinity, scheme against the Hokage to dethrone her, and perhaps most dreadful of all: get a job. But he knew which one of those three things he was prioritising.

Their nefarious plans, their sinister plots – Tsunade's, Danzō's all of them – they could not, would not, come to fruition. He staked his life on it. "From ancient grudge break to new mutiny" he muttered darkly below his breath as the others spoke to get to know each other. "Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean". He shook his head hard and stared at his sake cup, wondering where the hell that had come from.

"Naruto-kun" wondered a small voice from beside him, and he looked to find Hinata staring back at him with wide, pale and moon-like eyes. "Are you… are you alright?"

"Aye" he muttered and reached for his cup again before stopping himself. No… drinking away one's sorrows wasn't the right thing to do. "Nah, I don't think I am-attebayo".

"Is it about earlier today?" she wondered. "The council wasn't very fair, were they? I could speak with my father, perhaps have you put back on the roster-"

"Thanks, Hinata-chan" he smiled at her with what joy he could muster after a long and gruelling day. "But… I don't think I should be on the job right now. The old farts aren't exactly wrong, ya know? And I've things to do in the village". Dark words, dark deeds - It's not the institutions that are faulty but the people leading them. Shizune-neesan's words echoed in his brain.

You didn't go against the Hokage. That was the greatest and most paramount of combat directives in Konoha – the Hokage was above reproach and beyond critique by common footmen shinobi. He had never shown the holders of the office very much respect, but… to actually seeking to supplant the Hokage? Insurgency, rebellion – a revolution? Nothing short of a coup d'état; that was what Kakashi-sensei and Shizune-neesan had in mind. In a way it went against everything he stood for, but lingering in apathy and inaction would result in the very same defiance of his beliefs. What was he to do?

"You will figure it out" Hinata assured him and timidly reached for his hand, made insecure by her strange new clothes yet pressing on regardless. As her smooth palm landed atop his tan and callused knuckles he flinched and shot his eyes away, but something about her drew his gaze back to her. "I believe in you".

"Everyone keeps saying that" he replied and now reached for his cup proper, taking it in an unsteady hand. "'You'll figure it out', 'I'm sure you can do it', 'I believe in you'… forgive me if it starts to grate just a fucken' bit-attebayo".

"What's wrong, Naruto-kun?" She could tell he wasn't angry at her, but judging by his ready drinking and his dour tone something was very much amiss. "You can tell me… please".

"I" he looked into those pale eyes and saw nothing but warmth and affection, tenderness from a tender heart and a gentle soul forced to harden by a warrior's rearing. Was she really suited for a shinobi life? She was a brilliant fighter, but wasn't her true strength the kindness that lay in her heart? "I'll tell you… later. I just – I just need to figure things out on my own first".

"I see" she nodded reached for her sake cup, sipping the clear liquid within and taking her face away hastily, frowning. "Ugh…"

"You don't like it, Hinata-sama?"Hiroko questioned, and Hinata shook her head. "I know! I will get you something that tastes like cinnamon!" Before the young woman could protest her bodyguard climbed out of her seat and made a bee-line for the bar, trying to explain to the barkeep who spoke their language poorly what she was looking for.

"Well, she's dedicated" Kiba noted as he looked after her. "Oi, Hinata – you don't happen to know if she's single?" Akamaru raised his head from his bowl and gave his master a long look, as if silently communicating with him, to which Kiba stared back, rolled his eyes, shrugged and huffed and Akamaru seemed to sigh and lay his head back down again. "None's the worry" Kiba said to Hinata. "Forget I asked".

"Anyone else but me that thinks the fact that the two of them talk like that is weird?" Ino asked the people around the table, but only Shikamaru, Ten-Ten and Sakura agreed. "Really, bro?" she wondered at Chouji. "You think this is no big deal?"

"He talks to animals, I can increase the size of my body at will, Shikamaru bends shadows, Hinata sees all things beneath heaven and you-" he gave her a long look. "You can mess with people's minds, love. You can literally take a walk in people's darkest fears and reconstruct their fucking minds! I've no idea what the Yamanaka are hiding, but your secret clan techniques are potentially the most powerful of them all!"

"I wish I was part of a clan" Ten-Ten sighed as she leant on one hand and sipped her sake.

"No" Shikamaru muttered back darkly, giving her a long look. "Trust me – you really, really don't".

"What's up with you?" Sakura questioned him, and he rolled his eyes to land on her. "Is it just too troublesome to be a part of clan politics, or are you just too lazy – as usual?"

"No, because family life is fucked up beyond a doubt" he informed her shortly. "The Yamanaka, for example, are democratic, which means that every single damn member of the clan is a potential political enemy-"

"True, that" Ino nodded in confirmation.

"And the Akimichi base everything on ritual and wrestling and piety and… shit-"

"It's really complicated" Chouji informed the pink-haired girl. "I mean, the leader of the clan isn't just the chief party organizer, he's also the spiritual head. Spiritual, as in the old fashioned kind of priest where every cleric is also a sumo wrestler. Raiden's our patron god, and-"

"Dude, nobody cares" Shikamaru rolled his eyes at his friend "and it's beside the point. The Hyūga have the whole caste thing going on, with Kenjin, Sōke, Bunke and Senmin, and the whole mistresses and slave-seal thing and the bloodline stuff. But mine" he pressed his assurance at her "my clan is the most fucked up one of them all".

"How so?" Ten-Ten asked as Hiroko returned with a few shot glasses filled with amber liquid to the table, sliding in next to Hinata even when she flashed Kiba a slight smile. "What's so bad about being a Nara?"

"My uncle's the chief elector of the clan" Shikamaru said "and since he's got no kids and I have no siblings, and my only two cousins are girls, I'm the only eligible heir".

"Huh?" Sakura wondered and looked to Chouji.

"They work on a system of Tanistry" the Akimichi informed her. "Only one family within the clan can inherit the leadership, and women can neither inherit the clan nor pass on the inheritance to their children. Not only that, but if there's more than one boy in the central family there is a vote, cast by six-"

"Seven" Shikamaru corrected lazily.

"-Seven electors, one of which is the chief elector and meant to not vote unless it is to settle ties. Any man of the head family that isn't the leader is eligible – and Shikamaru's got all six votes at the moment".

"At least I did the last time the vote was held" Shikamaru added. "We do it on the first full moon every November. It's not very special since I'm the only possible candidate for the vote".

"But here's the kicker" Ino finished the little impromptu lecture. "The Nara first speaker – I mean clan leader, sorry, my own clan stuff kind of coloured that – anyway, that guy has to be like a deer. Do know anything about the mating habits of shika?"

"Wait a bloody second" Kiba stared at Shikamaru in a jealous fury. "Don't tell me-"

"Deer males have harems during the mating season" Shikamaru ignored the Inuzuka and rolled his eyes at it all with a sigh before he spoke with mock enthusiasm, for some reason mimicking Naruto's voice. "So not only do I have no siblings, I've got three mommies!"

"What?!" Sakura and Ten-Ten stared at him. "What the hell?!"

"Nara" Chouji seemed to toast "the most chauvinist clan in Konoha. No female inheritance, fully agnatic succession, bloody harems… It's a wonder Shikamaru and his dad are as normal as they are, considering, I say".

"How many?" Kiba asked, bright of eye and eager to know. "How many chicks do-?"

"No fewer than three, no more than nine, and all of them without any chance of divorce at all" Shikamaru sighed. "Women… just so troublesome… maybe if I make my uncle explode I can-"

"Whoa!" they all snapped their eyes to the sudden exclamation of Hinata, who had just let her class clatter against the table as she dropped it as her eyes grew teary and her face wine red. "What was that?" she peeped in a dry and strangled voice as she looked to her handmaiden.

"You wanted cinnamon liquor, so I got you some Fireball!" Hiroko grinned triumphantly.

"Are you alright, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked and laid a hand on her back as if the slap her on the back if she choked. "Do you need some-?"

"Water?" she nodded with a strangled whisper, her whole mouth and throat burning like she had just swallowed a mouthful of sulphuric acid. "Yes, please, Naruto-kun".

"Suiton: Dashi no Jutsu" Naruto pulled one of the tall glasses from the side of the table that a waiter hadn't yet stealthily retrieved and pointed his finger down into it, sending a stream of water pouring from his finger, water so cold that the surface of the class immediately misted up as he filled it to the brim. "Here you go" he ended the technique and handed the glass to Hinata, who bowed over it in thanks before she drank deeply of it.

"'Pretext technique'?" Sakura arched an eyebrow at Naruto.

"'Broth technique'" he clarified the ambiguous word to them. "What?" he wondered at their long looks and rolling eyes. "I ran out of broth for ramen once and came up with it. Surprisingly handy-attebayo". He looked to Hinata again, concern in his eyes. "You alright, Hinata-chan?"

"It" she gulped down another deep swallow of chill water, the blonde beside her transfixed by the way her throat moved with each draught "it was quite strong. I- I believe I drained the glass. I'm sorry, Naruto-kun".

"No, it's quite alright, I'll just make you another" Naruto smiled at her and took the now empty glass away from her, their fingers brushing against each other temporarily as they did. Hinata felt as if she had gotten a shock that echoed through the whole of her body and Naruto felt himself blush at the touch while the others around the table sat oblivious while they resumed their own conversation.

"So you actually have to have three wives or more?" Ten-Ten questioned Shikamaru, pressing a query she hadn't been able to voice earlier. "What if you get married before you become clan leader?"

"I just have to get more wives" Shikamaru sighed. "Clan law, and otherwise… bad stuff happens. My da was more or less forced too by the electors – troublesome geezers – and one of my other moms has a ice-cream shop down in Suna to stay out of the way. The last lives openly with a Katō-"

"One of those Shimura-sniffing arseholes?" Kiba growled and looked like he had just swallowed something disgusting.

"You know, one of your kinsmen had the same reaction when my father mentioned it to him" Shikamaru mused curiously. "Do you have feud with them or something?"

"The Inuzuka feud with everyone" Ino snickered.

"No, we don't!" Kiba narrowed his eyes at the blonde.

"But you do feud a lot more than most other clans" Hiroko decided to join the conversation. "I've heard of that from… Tohide-kun? You know: Bunke from my clan, a year older than me, binds metal bands around his hands and specialises in Taijutsu-"

"Most of you look all the same to me" Kiba interrupted her. "I mean, you all got long hair, those weird eyes of yours, the same slender builds and the same smell of" he sniffed the air "green tea and water lilies. I can only tell Hinata apart because she looks like a curvy version of the onryō in Ringu".

"And that is why no one wants to be friends with the Inuzuka" Hiroko smiled at the three from team Shikamaru. "And there's no hungry ghost in Ringu. You're thinking of Ju-on 3".

"You know, I haven't seen that movie yet" Ten-Ten spoke up.

"Oh, you really should" Sakura urged her. "It'll scare the knickers off you! And there totally is an onryō in Ringu. It's called Sadako or something, right?"

"Horror movie night at the Akimichi compound next time we get out pay?" Chouji suggested. "We could see that one about the foxes and the stairs too, yeah? Since the Kyūbi attack it's been nearly impossible to find it in this town, but I managed to get ahold of it on a mission to Kaminari no Kuni".

"Isn't that the high school horror film from Mizu no Kuni?" Ino asked with a slight frown. "What's it called… Yeowoogyedam? Ah, Mizu language is hard".

"Well, it took a while for me to learn it too" Sakura commented, and the words echoed around the table as their conversation about film, culture and the frustrations of their young lives wore on. Naruto and Hinata, on the other hand, didn't join in, as Hinata was busy regaining her powers of speech after drinking the incredibly potent cinnamon whiskey, though she had to admit it was quite delicious. Naruto, on the other hand, was unknowingly acting a lot like his former teammate and was busy brooding.

Maybe he should just out and tell them about the Fox? After all, they were his friends and he trusted them, and it was bound to come up sooner or later, given how he was chased by Akatsuki who were after the Bijū and all the ones that harboured the demons within themselves. Perhaps they had figured it out for themselves… no. If they had, they would have treated him differently, and that was the true crux of the matter, was it not? If he told them then they would detest him and recoil from him like everyone else who knew always had done. If everyone knew, he would never become Hokage.

But…

Did he even want to become Hokage after all that he now knew?

It was hard brooding with his friends enjoying themselves around him, but somehow he managed to keep doing so for the next ten minutes before they decided to move on to bigger and better things, namely the place known as club HI.

Club HI was one of the alpha places to go to for the Shinobi of Konoha, a karaoke bar with many booths rendered completely soundproof and serviced by waiters with plenty of drinks and even smaller snacks and meals. Naruto, of course, had never been there. When he wanted to unwind he generally trained really hard or worked on his techniques or punched something until it broke, and the whole culture of sitting in a cramped room with a whole lot of people singing poor renditions of popular songs seemed nothing but strange and embarrassing to him at first.

'At first' being the key phrase. As it turned out singing was a lot of fun.

Chouji went first as the others settled down, Hinata unsteady after having two drinks of some of the most potent commercial liquor in the entirety of the country and having to be supported by attendant on the far side of the room from the Naruto sat himself in. Ino sat herself next to him, looking like she was musing something over while the Akimichi heir started some bombastic singing of a classical song that all of them had heard over the radio at least at one point or another and, as one, they could all agree that he was pretty crap at singing with his comparatively gravelly voice.

Even Naruto was forced to sing, after most of everyone else had gotten a turn. He

As he sat back down after he was done embarrassing himself and let Kiba take the spotlight he got them impression that Ino had something to say to him. "I've got something to say to you" she informed him thus while Kiba began wailing his way through a song called _Highway Star_ , proving to them once and for all that dogs can't sing.

"What's up?" He wondered, frowning on seeing her severity. "Is something the matter?" Tiredly she sighed and nodded.

"My da and the clan... They want me to...pursue you". At his oblivious look she knew that she had explain it further. "They want the young women of the clan to... Befriend you. Seduce you and try to get you to-"

"Oh" he noted before true realisation hit him and his face was distorted in disgust and surprise. "Oh! That's... Nice, Ino. I'm flattered, but-"

"Are you pants-on-head retarded, mate?" she grunted and flicked his brow. "I don't like you in that way! The clan wants us to breed with you so that we can gain your Kekkei Genkai into our Hiden techniques!" Her look was steely as she regarded him and his darkening countenance. "Do you get it now?"

"Aye, I do" he replied slowly, and as she turned back he began to do his best Sasuke impression once again as he began to brood.

"I - I just thought you should know" she finished hesitantly. "I mean... I'm not cattle, and neither are you. We shouldn't be reduced to nothing but genes and biology, yeah? We're Shinobi, but we're people too, and we have a right to live our lives the way we want to".

"Whatever" he grumbled back, bright blue eyes uncharacteristically dark. "Just focus on Kiba's singing-attebayo".

"I just thought you should know; is all" she shrugged and went back to try and regain her previously good mood, leaving Naruto with his heavy thoughts.

Was that all what they wanted from him - his blood? Was he nothing more than a weapon in their hands, like Haku had thought he was? Was Ino? Was Hinata? _This is what they would reduce us to!_ Kakashi-sensei's words rang in his ears. This village... They needed a new leader, lest all that they were, all that they believed in, would be lost. It wasn't enough to simply espouse the Will of Fire: A Hokage had to live it.

Was he strong enough to protect them all? After all this time.. Was he strong enough to reach out to his dream and take it by force?

He looked up at the others, to the friends around him that went about their swagger and downing their glasses of rice-wine down as they sang and hollered, he felt a smile creep onto his face.

For them, for Konoha, he would give anything. And for them he'd become the best damn Hokage there ever was.

So he joined in the festive mood and cheered and jested with Kiba as he stepped down from the mic and handed it over to Sakura, who sang something calmer and more classic about her namesake flower falling from the trees in early summer and lost love or whatever - he didn't really remember.

Because then it was Hinata's turn at the mic.

He was surprised at how daring she was, immediately settling on a song and taking the mic with gusto, but even more so when he heard the song that began to blast out of the speakers. He had expected something timid, something soft and fitting to her outward persona, but instead… She sang something played by a girl rock band called SCANDAL, and she knew the words and the rhythm perfectly, as if it was one of her favourite songs.

Her singing voice was surprisingly deep, more than a few pitches lower than her speaking voice, and bombastically explosive as if she had trained herself to sing using operatic techniques. The text too, she knew it by heart, as if the story of the song spoke to her on a personal level – a story about love that was unrequited, about a woman who was waiting for her lover to one day realise her true feelings for him and knock on the door to her heart. As she danced and sang and the others around them grooved to the rhythm of the beat Naruto couldn't help but stare haplessly at her. Was this who Hinata really was? So much power and energy and – and passion waiting to be released?

He was surprised at the turns his mind took as he regarded the way she moved her hips to the song, and tried to tell himself that he was simply being a pervert, but it wasn't working. She filled his mind with thoughts that weren't supposed to be there, and made his body yearn for her in a very literal way, forcing him to adjust the way he sat lest he be showered by cries of 'Pervert!'. And the lyrics, not simply her singing, struck him too – was this how she felt? Was he just being a bastard as he didn't see her true feelings? Was this what all of them had been going on about?

Bloody hell, it all made his head hurt like he had just gotten a half-formed Chidori to the skull.

"Your turn" when the song was over she staggered, sweaty and flushed and her sizeable chest heaving beneath her yukata, to stand before Naruto, but she was looking to Ino beside him and jerked hard with her head, making clear it was an order and not a request. As Ino rose the heiress took her place, sinking down in the seat next to Naruto, pressing her side against him as she looked up to meet his eyes. "What did you think?"

Her gaze was a little glazy, and her words unsteady from the strong liquor she had consumed earlier that night, but by the clarity of her intent he could tell she was by her full faculties still. "It's was awesome, that's what I think" he whistled softly as he followed a single pearl of crystalline sweat roll from the top of her throat to the hollow of her throat and into her cleavage after traversing the pale white skin between. He had to force himself – force! Was he as bad as ero-sennin now? – not to lean forwards and kiss that drop of sweat away.

"I like the band" she confided as Ino began on some pop diddy while the others cheered on. "I like the foreign bands better when it comes to the guitarwork and the pure music, but when it comes to lyrics nothing beats the native tongue. Don't you agree" she turned more fully towards him, some deep intention coming into her eyes "Naruto-kun?"

"A-aye, sure" he felt the heat radiate from her and felt his own body respond, every second that went by in such proximity to her making another reason not to simply give in to passion wink out of existence. "I like your singing voice, Hinata-chan. It's deeper than I thought it would be".

"Do you like me, Naruto-kun?" she pressed and pulled herself towards him, made forward and confident by the inhibition-lowering alcohol in her blood. "If you want, I can sing to you all the time. Every night" she bent close to him, her breath hot, humid and smelling of cinnamon on his ear "you could make me sing so loud".

"Hinata-sama-" Hiroko began to protest from across the small room as she became aware of her mistress's uncharacteristic behaviour, but Kiba gave her a hard look and shot out with his hand.

"Don't even think about it, lassie" he was almost growling. "I've been waiting for this moment for three sodding years, and you're letting it happen, capisce?" Meanwhile the last of the Uzumaki and the Hyūga heiress were oblivious to everything but themselves.

"Hinata-chan" Naruto stammered as she stared at him so intently that it almost made him a little scared, even after all the things he had seen and all the things he had defeated. "You're not acting like yourself-"

"But you won't see me otherwise" she protested in the same whisper. "Do you not like me? Am I too shy for you? Do you want me to wear slutty clothes and say I long for your-?"

"I do like you being shy" he cut her off before she said something she would regret, though he suspected that she had already done that. "But… I told you this. I've got so much shite going on I… I don't know what to do anymore".

"But I want this to happen" she confided, her thigh rising and laying across his own in a possessive gesture. "I'm a big gi- I'm a woman, Naruto-kun. I'm strong. I can handle everything".

"Except for liquor-attebayo" he muttered, to which she did something unthinkable: she raised her hand and poked his whiskered cheek hard. "Aow!"

"Don't be rude, Naruto-kun" she waged her finger but inches away from his eyes. "It's not nice. Don't make fun of me – I'm trying to bare myself here!" As soon she had said that she blushed brightly. "M-metaphorically, of course!"

"Right" he drawled in response. "Hinata, I'm… I might be doing some stuff in the future, some stuff you might think is bad if you don't know the full story-"

"Stuff that's the reason why you've bee acting like that Uchiha traitor scum all day?" she wondered.

"Don't call him that!" he narrowed his eyes at her. "He wanted to get strong enough to revenge his family and regain his honour and saw only one way to do that. That doesn't make him scum-!"

"Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash" she told him, sliding fully onto his lap, straddling his legs so that her milky muscular thighs and longs legs were bared to his eyes. "Real shinobi don't go back on their word or betray their comrades. They don't leave behind their friends" she was leaning in close to him, her pale eyes staring into his blue ones "or the ones they hold dear".

"That's my Nindō" he gasped as he felt her come ever closer.

"Our" she corrected and laid her head slightly to the side so that one side of her neck was obfuscated by a fall of indigo-black hair that looked almost blue in the Technicolor light of the cramped room. "Naruto-kun…"

"Aye?" she was only an inch away now, her lips slightly pursed and glistening and so hellishly inviting. No! To hell with restraint! He surged forwards to take her lips on his – and was stopped by a resolute finger.

"Naruto" she was blushing, but still holding him away with a single finger as if to silence him firmly and make him listen intently. "I won't kiss you until you say you are my boyfriend… and mean it!"

"Hinata, I-" he found himself growling in frustration, his whole body tense, his heart hammering with the desire that raged through him and made him want to surrender sense to passion. "If I say this… I stand by my word-attebayo. If I say it, I'm in it for the long run".

"Fine by me" she assured him shortly, a slight smile coming onto her lips evens as her gaze burned with a flame to match his own. "Say it. I want you to".

"Hinata" he swallowed hard, words suddenly failing him "do you want to be my girlfriend – for real?"

"Yes" her smile broadened as she took her finger away and leaned in further towards him.

And then she kissed him.

* * *

… And so falls the curtain! Whoa!

 **A/N:** Well, not a lot happened in this chapter – or, well, quite a lot, given if you count internal conflict, politicking and angsting one's way towards courage are "things" that happen. Personally, I don't. I can't wait for the more action packed chapters to come along, and they are just around the corner. Literally.

I've always been interested in this whole notion of "Clan Culture" which Kishimoto-sensei has imparted on Naruto, and so I decided to expand a little on it. The whole thing about the Shika-harem stuff? Just setting up future drama, and if you do not believe that Shika have harems then just google Japanese Deer.

Anyway, I've already explained why this chapter took so much comparative time. I've got like eight pages on material on the next chapter ready so I should hopefully be getting it out to you guys posthaste.

Cheerio for now, then! Read and Review, and DFTBA!

Wait a second... Something is coming! Oh no! It's a-

 **Omake:** _Konohamaru's and Moegi's discussion on language and British slang…_ _Suu~ēden-go! (In Swedish!)_

"Vet du" Konohamaru sat bredvid Moegi uppe på en av de delande murarna kring Konohagakure no Sato's största villaområde, en vitputsad tegelmur deras specifika säte som skymde ett av Fūmaseptens många delägda byggnader från de som skulle kunna tänka sig att blicka in där från grussväggen utanför. "Författaren ville först skriva all dialog i den här berättelsen på japanska".

"Allvarligt?" svarade Moegi med höjda ögonbryn. "Det låter bara... jobbigt. Omständigt, om inget annat". De satt och väntade på Udon och sensei Ebisu, då de hade kommit överens tillsammans om att träna Ninjutsu på obestämd ort, och de två ynglingarna spenderade sin tid i väntan med att dösnacka, leta efter former bland molnen och sparka med hälarna mot murens topp som redan innan de var födda hadde sett bättre dager.

"Författaren kom till samma slutsatts" sade Sarutobiarvingen med ett allvarligt och accentureande nickande. "Man skulle vara tvungen att förklara allting för läsarna-"

"Du menar den läsarkrets som är nästan uteslutande bestående av ostburgarinhalenrande amerikaner?" avbröt flickan gemytligt. "Måste man inte redan förklara allting för dem?"

"Var inte så jävlig" protesterade ninjaprinsen. "De Förenta Staterna är en isolerad nation med insulär politik och ofta reaktionärt kulturellt bildande. Under sådanna omständigheter skulle även du och jag också sky nya kulturella erfarenheter. Dessutom... Jag vet inte om sådanna utalanden är rassistiska, men det är väll nära nog på för att det inte ska göra någon skillnad".

"Så istället för att ha oss alla tala vårat modersmål så tvingar han oss att använda obskyr brittisk och irlänsk slang?" fortgick den rödhåriga jäntan. "That... It makes no sense!"

"Jo, det gör det" ifrågasattes det utalandet. "Tänk på att författaren, besservisser som han är, är mer brittisk än han är svensk eller japansk, oavsett ursprung och uppfostran. Och det är väll inte särskilt konstigt om han ser till att vi pratar på samma sätt som han och hans polare talar engelska, eller hur?"

"Men varför alla slangord? De andra på sidan använder väll inte så mycket-?"

"Skojar du med mig? Amerikanerna som skriver på FanFiction skapar saker som består till hälften av Amerikanska idiom, till hälften dålig grammatik och en fjärdedel urusel mattematik. Varför skulle inte våran författare för använda det språkbruk han använder i vanlig dager när han skriver? Varför skulle han inte få försöka göra språket och dialogerna mer naturaliga med slangord och svordommar?"

"Varför är du så benägen till att försvara honom?" undrade Moegi. "Du har ju sagt själv att han är ett riktigt rövål och att han aldrig ger dig någon tid i rampljuset. Jag har bara haft en enda replik i berättelsen än så länge-"

"Än så länge" påpekade Konohamaru, varpå Moegi lade huvudet på sned och öronen på skafft. "Den här berättelsen är långt ifrån färdig, och jag har manuset därhemma. Fick det hemskickat som del av mitt välkomstpaket när jag gick med i the NaruHina Alliance. Vet du hur mycket awesome saker vi kommer att göra?"

"Är det-" men hon hann inte tala till punkt, för frågan var retorisk.

"Riktigt, riktigt mycket" fortgick unge Sarutobi.

"Ugh" suckade Moegi och lade ansiktet i händerna. "Den här diskutionen är så jävla meta... fan, jag får migrän av det!"

"Du menar väll ändå huvudvärk?" log Konohamaru kaxit, varpå hans förbandskamrat gav honom en giftig blick. "Du får inte angikallisera svenskan". Helt plötsligt kom en tanke till honom, och han började skratta så hejdlöst att han rammlade av muren och slog ryggen i gruset på vägen nedanför.

"Har du äntligen fått fnatt?" undrade hon när hon hoppade ner efter honom och drog honom till stående igen. "Med tanke på hur hårt du tränat så var det bara en tidsfråga, antager jag-"

"Översätta!" sade han kvävt medan han förgäves försökte hämta andan. "De kommer att försöka översätta detta avsnittet med Google Translate, eller Babbelfish, eller Polygot! Inser du-" han föll offer för skrattet igen, och när Moegi insåg vad han menade så kunde hon inte låta bli att flina själv.

"Fy satan vad de kommer att ha bry med det!" fnittrade hon. "Åh, författaren kommer att få några riktigt stimulerande meddelanden om detta!"

"Precis!"

Och medan de unga tu skrattade sig förnöjda längs vägkanten forsatte berättelsen på annat håll.


	8. An Impossible Dream

**A/N:** So, it's time for another chapter already? Oh my, how the time flies.

I want to note something first though, ere we begin. The reason that I do not respond to comments actively is due to a personal philosophy of mine that is thus: it's my job to provide the work, and the readers to critique it. I should not dissuade criticisms or comments of any sort, but do not think that I don't read your reviews. They are the life and soul of what I write, and the fact that I stay silent in regards to them is not a sign of apathy. It is not my place to question or challenge my readers to a personal battle if I'm offended by critics, as my work should stand for itself and for you, the readers, to interpret as you want to.

With all that said… thank you, all of you, for the awesome reviews and the feedback. Feel free to hash things out with me over PMs, because I find that quite alright - if you got more personal questions or personal concerns or want to know about future events in this story, don't hesitate to contact me thus.

What I'm saying is… I'm really happy I got such wonderful readers.

What I'm _really_ saying is… I'm so hopped up on painkillers and sleeping meds that I don't even notice the huge ass wiring keeping my entire sodding jaw strung shut like I'm getting acting lessons from Shawn Roberts.

Thus: as I'm writing this chapter, please be aware that I am, for lack of a better word for it, _tripping balls_.

The theme song for this chapter, and the last chapter, is Sirenia's _Path to Decay_. Should have mentioned that last time, but I didn't because of my colossal ineptitude. _Gomene_.

And with that, let's pick up where we were, yes?

* * *

Chapter 8: An Impossible Dream

* * *

For a second Naruto had no idea of what to do – and he was scared shitless.

There she was, yukata hiked up around her thighs as she sat in his lap, her body flush against his and her breasts pressing into his upper chest through their clothes, her hands upon his cheeks, her eyes closed shut in wonder and exhilaration and she pressed her lips to his. She was kissing him! Kissing him! Bloody hell, what was going on? Was this actually happening? Had he just agreed to become her boyfriend? Why had everyone else in the room fallen silent?

And why the hell wasn't he kissing her back instead of just sitting there like a knob?

"Hm!" he heard Hinata eep through the kiss as he encircled her waist with his arms and pulled her harder into him, revelling in the feeling of her lips on his. Her lips were soft, most, quivering with her every nasal breath, and her breath tasted of cinnamon and… was that honey he tasted as he pushed his tongue past her lips and into her mouth, making it dance with hers? Acting as if famished he kissed her harder, with all the passion he could muster, sloppily and messily but earnestly beyond ken, having shut his eyes sometime during their impromptu make-out session so that he could do nothing but feel, feel _her_. Even when he had stood face to face with Uchiha Itachi, Gaara in his full transformation mode and that immortal Akatsuki guy his heart hadn't been hammering his hard in his chest, but it was a good kind of panic, a hurry that made him want to press on and explore every delicious opportunity with her.

After what felt like an eternity, an eternity that had gone by far too quickly, she pulled back, and with a reluctant whine he let her, panting as he did, finding that he was out of breath despite not having registered that before. And as he opened his eyes he found her the same, her chest heaving beneath her yukata, her eyes fixed on his and a fire raging within her, the sweat trickling all over her, all over him. Her fingers were steady, intent, as one hand trailed down his neck from his whiskered cheeks to lay flat against the breast of his shirt, idly toying with the buttons while her other hand went around his head and up into his hair.

"Naruto" she whispered, her small voice hoarse and forced out through her panting and her passion, a desire so grand it made all words require force to get out.

"Hinata, I-" he replied to, his own voice a strangled groan. Had she performed some Jutsu on him when he wasn't looking? How could she have spellbound him so completely as now, as her pale lavender eyes looked back into his blue ones?

"I've wanted to do that for a very long time" she confided, the hand in his hair playing with a couple of wry strands, discovering that he, even now, wore no gel in it to make it stand up. "You've no idea-" suddenly she jerked and looked down, a hard blush filling her rosy cheeks as she noticed that even through her yukata and his slacks and both of their underwear a… _certain_ part of his anatomy was pressed against the corresponding part of hers. "Oh". She hadn't even thought of that, to be honest. But the mere thought of him lusting _hard_ after her made her spine tingle and a warmth spread through her body from the bottom of her stomach. Suddenly there was an itch deep within her, a sort of urging feeling against her insides that seemed to co-inside with said insides growing warm and flush – perhaps he could-

"Naruto!" a sudden cry shattered the moment as efficiently as a hammer's blow does a crystal window. " _Shannaro_!" Both of them looked up to see Sakura bellowing in anger, being just about hold back by Kiba's insistences. "Stop forcing Hinata-chan to-!"

"He's not forcing me" Hinata was in awe of the fact that her voice didn't waver in the slightest as she regained her composure and stopped panting at last, catching her breath. "If anything, I'm forcing him-"

"Wanna bet, love?" Naruto interrupted in something that was halfway between a purr and a growl as his head shot forward and his lips latched onto the skin just about the pulse of her throat, kissing that pale skin intently as he wondered what her skin would taste like if he licked it, and if she would disapprove if he did lick her thus. She gasped and the hand in his hair settled on the back of his head, not gripping him to tell him to stop nor pushing him away, giving her silent consent to his delicious escapades.

"Okay, so maybe I'm not forcing him" she blushed as everyone else in the room stared at her while Naruto was happily kissing her pule and making her heart flutter and her knees shake. It was so embarrassing having them all watch them – but she had been waiting more than ten years for this day. She would be damned if she was forced to stop by something as silly as social convention.

"Hinata-sama!" Hiroko cried in a chastising tone. "You're drunk!"

"Obviously" she sighed as those insistent hands moved higher on her back. "Otherwise I wouldn't be brave enough to do this, yeah? But-" his tongue darted out of his mouth and struck her pulse like a whip, making her back arch at the sudden hot sensation. "N-Naruto-kun!"

"You taste good-attebayo" he grinned like a fox in a henhouse and chuckled, ignoring the others in the room completely even as she began to come down from her emotional high and become really, really embarrassed. He really had next to no social graces, did he?

But… she turned back her face to his and stroked his cheeks as she kissed him tenderly, savouring the spicy taste of his mouth. He did taste a little like ramen, though his scent was more akin to… she didn't really care. He smelled good, and that was enough. She didn't care that he was sometimes rude and always loud and about as subtle as a kick to the face. She never had cared about that. She loved him, and this felt like the culmination of many a days of dancing around each other waiting for the other to make the first move.

This was not how she had pictured her first kiss – but it was so much better than she had ever thought it would be so she didn't really mind.

"I take full credit for this" Kiba said from aside while Akamaru lay snoozing drunkenly at his feet, the dog in the position of "I-couldn't-care-less". "Just so you know, as chairman of the NaruHina Alliance, I proclaim the club disbanded, as we have reached our mission and chartered goal. Also… Booyah!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "Hah! Victory! Bloody victory! The NHA stands triumphant!"

"They really make a pretty couple" Ten-Ten noted in awe as Ino pulled up her camera and started taking pictures of the young lovers. "What'cha doing, Ino-chan?"

"Recording this for posterior" she said simply, not disclosing the fact that she would show the images to the elders of the clan too to get them off her back in regards to the whole 'seduce Naruto'-scheme. "The kids'll wanna know when their parents first kissed, yeah?"

Of all of them, even Hiroko who could see that her mistress was thoroughly enjoying themselves, only one person remained unimpressed. "Troublesome" Shikamaru snorted hard and then raised his voice. "Oi! You two – get a room, will you?"

And at those words Naruto and Hinata split apart, arms unwinding from around each other as their kiss ended and they moved away from each other, both blushing, Hinata fidgeting with her fingers and Naruto swallowing hard as he watched her turned-away face. As eager as they were, as _hot_ as they were, neither of them were ready to go all the way yet. But… as Hinata looked up she gave her beloved a slight smile, timid but earnest and honest, telling him that she wasn't ready but that one day soon she would be. Not just yet, but soon. And he smiled back shakily, a thousand million thoughts rushing through his head at lightning speed, most of them eager, some of them terrified. What if she had come to her senses and decided that his messy and inept attempts at romance were not what she really wanted?

But his fears were belied as when she slid off his lap she was still pressing her hip to his, and after she had straightened out her yukata she took one of his arms and draped it almost like a shawl over her shoulders. He settled it there, his touch upon her skin in a possessive gesture, as the ruckus resumed and the night wore on as before. Well, almost as before. From time to time she would angle her face upwards or he would turn his face downwards and their lips would meet in kisses, sweet kisses, pecks upon the lips that were sometimes short and hurried, sometimes long, lazy and tender.

As Hinata was pressured to sing once more by the others and left his embrace to rise he couldn't help but smile like a fool even as he missed her beside him. Unbidden his thoughts went to his first kiss – an accidental smash of the lips against Sasuke's in the classroom followed by curses and a blossoming hatred. This, the thing he had just shared with Hinata, was a world apart from that, so different that he was hesitant to even call his and Sasuke's mutually disgusted smoosh a kiss.

And to his sudden nervousness Hinata selected a song that was obviously a duet, and so she turned to hold out a hand to him with a smile as the music started. With the others around him cheering him on he grinned back at her and stood, joining her at the mic in some serenade-like pop diddy he had never heard before except on the radio about more times than he had ever thrown a kunai. Her voice was a little too operatic, too active for the song, and he himself felt like his own singing was amateur at best and a horrible mockery at worst compared to hers, but she didn't seem to mind.

And when they kissed at the end of the song the others in the room around them cheered and whistled.

If only the night had ended then, he would later think. If so then maybe the days to follow would have been happier.

But such was not the case.

It was all Kiba's fault, really. He was the one that brought with him a bottle of sake when their turn at the karaoke bar was over, bringing it with him as they piled out onto the street and loudly, with great emphasis, discussed where they were going to go now that they were moving on. None of them lived on their own and could thus reasonably entertain eight drunken and rowdy guests at that time of night, except for-

"Yosh!" Naruto decreed, his arm around Hinata as he kept her close. "We all go to my place, then!

And so they set off down the street at night, making their way across the village towards Naruto's flat whilst loudly conversing, chatting, even singing at times, and generally having a good time. It was not to last.

It was Kiba's attuned senses that first picked the presence of trouble in their vicinity. "You see that shite, man?" a distant voice asked another in a vile and horrendous tone.

"If you mean two Hyūga bitches whoring about on the town in an open display of licentiousness and lechery, then aye" replied another voice, this one younger, more eager, wanting as if to please and go along with the other motions.

"I say we have a talk with them" spoke the first, approaching swiftly. "We should take them some place quiet and… educate them on what happens with high strung noble cunts who drink too much and strut about when the lights are out".

"Aye" said the second voice, followed by a short grunt by a third, a heavy voice out of a large man used to silence. Kiba could smell trouble coming, but when they rounded a corner and actually saw with his own eyes the trouble it was much bigger than he had feared. They were cops.

Moreover, they were dirty cops.

There were three of them, two dark Shimura men one of which was tall and built like a tank but seemed to be unable to speak, the other slender, green of hair and obviously the leader of the lot while the last was a Sarutobi youth who seemed to be weak willed and just along for the ride, young and eager to please his superiors. They all wore the standard shinobi uniforms of Konoha, flak jackets and blue bodysuits beneath, but each of them also wore a red sash around their waist with the mark of the military police embroided on the centre of the sanguine fabric: the crest of the Shimura clan, a stylised roof of a pagoda, in white within a four-pointed black shuriken.

"Good evening, citizens" the green haired Shimura constable spoke up in a tone that didn't betray his ill intentions even in the slightest, sounding ever the professional and the ideal enforcer of the law as the three came around the corner and ran smack-dab into the nine young shinobi.

"Shit" Ten-Ten cursed from the back of the group even as Kiba pushed his way to the front of them alongside his horse-sized dog, forgetting that he was holding a bottle of sake in one hand and that public intoxication was a misdemeanour.

"Whad'ya want, Shimura?" Kiba growled, his hackles raised immediately as he was the only one in their little group who had heard the words of the constables given his acute senses.

"Is that an alcoholic beverage you are in possession of, Inuzuka-san?" the Sarutobi constable asked in a clear rhetorical manner, hiding his seething resentment upon seeing the red face-tattoos of Kiba's that marked his lineage clearer than any crest. "Are you aware that-?"

"Come on, officer!" Chouji exclaimed jovially and made his way to the fore of the group while the others shied back as the other two policemen approached Hinata and Hiroko. "There is no need for hostility! Tonight we celebrate being alive and well, and so should you! You should not-"

"Hyūga-san, are these ruffians bothering you?" the Sarutobi officer asked Hinata, who tried to shake her head and shy away from his sickeningly intense stare. "Sir" he implored Naruto sternly before she even had a chance to respond "please take your hand off her!"

"You are lucky I do not fine you for disorderly behaviour, Akimichi-san" the first constable went to Chouji as the situation grew ever more hostile. "Now, we will escort the two ladies back to their clan compound while the rest of you disperse and go about your businesses".

"No fucking chance, mate!" Kiba growled and planted himself firmly before the green-haired officer, even Naruto catching on to the suddenly darkening turn their night was taking. "Shove off, or I'll show you Inuzuka law-"

"Now, Inuzuka-san, threatening an officer of the law is grounds for imprisonment" the leader spoke "though I am willing to chalk it up to inebriation and thus forget it. Sake, yes?"

"Miss, we will have to take you back to your clan's-" the Sarutobi officer spoke and did that one fatal mistake – he reached for Hinata's arm. She made to deflect him even as Hiroko moved to slap some Hyūga justice into that crooked lawkeeper.

But it was Naruto that made his move first.

"Don't you fucking touch her, mate" he snarled as he gripped the man by the wrist with fingers that might as well have been made of steel. "I've had enough of people trying to trample all over us for today, you hear? She's not going with you, josser!"

"Take your hand off me or I will arrest you for-" the officer began to warn sternly, his eyes hard and flinty until, all of the sudden, those same eyes shot wide in shock as he stiffened in sudden terror and pain. Wordlessly he began to cry as his free hand swatted at Naruto's fingers, trying to pry himself out of the blonde's grip. With a gasp everyone else began to stare too at the place where Naruto was holding the man, but Naruto himself didn't yet notice.

"Take your hands off him, or I will strike to kill!" one officer growled and pulled a kunai from the holster at his hip, staring promises of literal daggers at Naruto.

"What? Why-?" he began to ask as his fury subsided by the change in mood that was going around the lookers-on, and when he followed their gazes to his iron grip on that wrist he too was struck dumb and silent.

For in his anger the gates of Hell had edged ajar, and through the cracks an icy death had seeped.

From his fingers, fingers now covered in a sort of pale blue corpse-light shine, frost spread in craggry lines over the skin of the Sarutobi lawman, up his hand and down his arm in a slow creep. Around the lines, thickening slowly into veins and then thick stripes, the skin grew pale and cold and spotted with black that became crystalline and hard. With every passing second the trapped man's screams grew louder and more frantic until even his fellow officers of the law were stunned and taken aback, but Naruto couldn't loosen the grip. His fingers seemed encased in ice and would not move until he took his free hand upon it and pulled it free, staggering back. The lawman did the same, falling back in agony as he clutched his frozen arm.

Unfortunately for him he landed hard on the street with arms first, and in a sickening crack that arm shattered in a thousand pieces of fleshy, pinkish, bloody ice, the blood seeping from the stump that was now just below his elbow. And after having stared at it but a second the man began screaming bloody murder, snapping his fellow two officers out of their stupor.

"Freeze, scum!" one of them snapped, not knowing how apropos his choice of phrase actually were as the ice began to fade and recede from Naruto's fingers without leaving any damage or any trace. "Put your hands above your head-"

"Miánken!" Hiroko cried and struck the offending man in the neck, sending him reeling to the ground in instant unconsciousness while Kiba took care of the other man by taking him in a chokehold until he saw the face of the gods and went to sleep by force.

"Bloody hell, mate!" Kiba exclaimed as he saw the man laying screaming on the ground, and Shikamaru, being the sensible one of the lot, kicked the screaming man in the temple so that he too was knocked unconscious. "What the buggernutts was that?!"

"Seems my Ma was right" Chouji said from the sidelines, staring at the softly bleeding stump of the would-be rapist. "'Once the tinder's primed it takes only a spark to set the whole thing ablaze'".

"Clever woman, your mum" Shikamaru commented calmly as Ino agreed silently, the three strangely level about the whole matter. For the others the situation was far less than ideal.

"What the fucking hell has your bloody mother to do with fucking anything?!" Sakura cried in a panic, her hands going to her face. "Oh Ancestors preserve us, you just killed a sodding constable!"

"Stop cursing, Haruno" Shikamaru said as he crouched down by the now firmly unconscious and in-shock newly made cripple, looking him over. "The wound isn't fatal if he gets medical attention within the next half hour. We follow protocol on this?" he looked to his teammates.

"Just like the time in Suna, huh?" Chouji commented and pulled the men to the side of the street, switching one of the men's radios on before he crushed it soundly beneath the heel of his shoe.

"Are we making it look like a robbery this time?" Ino wondered as she reached for one of the men's pockets.

"No, too much evidence pointing to Naruto given that his fingerprints must be frozen into the guy's flesh" Shikamaru noted "and they saw our faces clearly. We'd have to kill them, and I don't feel right about doing that. Not to others of the Leaf".

"Have you" Hinata swallowed the distress in her throat as she looked to the three "have you guys done this sort of thing before?"

"Let's just say that we'd be in the middle of a war with Sunagakure by now if it wasn't for Asuma-sensei" was the only clue Ino provided.

"He was a good man, but he wasn't above getting his hands dirty for the things he loved" Chouji added, surveying the pile he had made of the men by the side of the street before he took Kiba's bottle of sake from him and poured it out all over the constables. "Done. Naruto-kun, make a clone and get Kakashi-sensei. Tell him to come to your apartment".

"Hm" Naruto nodded, still staring at his hands even as he limply formed a cross seal and created a clone that instantly began sprinting for Kakashi's flat, his mind in shock. Had he…? Ancestors help him, was his Kekkei Genkai so destructive?

"Snap out of it!" Shikamaru ordered him sternly and looked to the others. "We're going to Naruto's flat now and getting Kakashi-sensei there. He'll know what to do next".

"That's your great plan?" Ten-Ten asked a little hollowly. "We were just accessory to crippling a policeman! This isn't going away by handing it over to the adults!"

"Do you have a better idea?!" Shikamaru snapped at her, his calm façade breaking to show the stress and duress beneath it. "I just about had the bastards restrained with my Kagemane no Jutsu, and once I had done that Ino could have sent them packing without any memory of it ever happening. But no, blondie had to go and play the hero as he always bloody does when he still doesn't have full control of his powers. Now, enough chatting! Let's jog the fuck on already!"

And so they hurried to the imagined safety of Naruto's apartment, where Kakashi and Shizune soon joined them. The two, informed of the events by Naruto's clone, were less than pleased.

"You should've killed them!" Shizune muttered from where she was standing by the far window, grimly considering the future that lay before them now. Most of the others were spread out over Naruto's flat, with Team Shikamaru leaning against the bedroom area's wall, Kakashi and Sakura moving about by Naruto's kitchenette, Kiba and Ten-Ten each dealing with their panicked nerves by pacing and sharpening a kunai repsectively, Hinata and Hiroko sitting on Naruto's bed holding hands while Hiroko was telling Hinata that things were going to be alright and Hinata was staring at Naruto.

He had only wanted to keep them safe, she thought as Shikamaru argued with Shizune about what had happened. The blonde hero of Konoha seemed downcast and dour, sitting limply on a chair by the rear wall of his studio flat, staring at his hands as if he saw them running slick with blood, screams still echoing in his ears.

"He was screaming like a rikishi who's swallowed brimstone, Shimura" Shikamaru replied in cold disdain for her ruthlessness. "We would've been discovered either way-"

"If you'd done that you would all gotten away free with just a little gore on your knuckles and you could've disposed of the bodies with a fire ball or a bomb – or even a Suiton blast would do to make most evidence contaminated".

"We'll sorry if I haven't freshened up on my murder correspondence course, _sensei_ " he spread his arms "but what the hell was I supposed to do? You know how people react to violence in situations associated with calm and safety, right? Basic Shock theory-"

"You know theories, but I used to lecture about combat psychology in universities around the shinobi world before you were even conceptualised in your parents' minds, Nara" she snapped back. "So, yes, because it being a peaceful zone suddenly contaminated suddenly with violence and distress, thus calling all other previous methods of thinking about their home into question. This, naturally, results in a sort of minor psychological breakdown. Have I lectured enough for you, Nara?! If you killed them, and you had to since everyone else were faced with their first ever experience of police brutality and immediate vigilante retribution, we could have pushed the blame other ways. We've could've made it look like a robbery or some pissed off ANBU who had decided to give these crooked feelers what for".

"They were Konoha soldiers!" Chouji rumbled on behalf of his friend.

"The military police is corrupt, elite and full of conceit. Those men… one was a Shimura with green hair and a top-knot held together by a copper pin? Green eyes, a face so smug it actually attracted punches? Yeah, it's my greedy second cousin once removed, and let me tell you that he deserves to get his throat cut in the night and drown in his own blood".

"He's a Konoha Shinobi!" Kiba growled at her to wit she gave him a steely look. "That means something to us! We're pack, all of us! All as One!"

"Is that why you sent your little puppy home to your mother?" she wondered about a certain missing dog that otherwise would have made the small flat crowd over.

"I'm late with training for ma, and… I don't want him to get hurt in all of this if they decide to take me away" he replied darkly, his voice tender as he spoke of the beast that was closer to his heart than any other living being.

"Because Tsume's a lot more observant than she is given credit for" Shizune looked to Kiba for the longest time then. "She's warned you, hasn't she? Your clan has a talent for sensing conflict before it begins, to smell the stink of war coming before anyone else does. She's clued you in, hasn't she?"

"Aye" he snarled "but it's all vague as fuck, isn't it?! All our clans and our commanders – and even you two arseholes! All of you, treating us like pawns in a game beacuase we're too young to understand or some shit excuse like that!"

"Then I'll speak with candour and point one thing out for you" Shizune stared hard at the Inuzuka. "War's coming to this village. We're all trying to keep it away, but with the mad rush that is going on for the unclaimed resource that is your comrade's Kekkei Genkai civil strife is all but inevitable. That means that the enemy you will fight in this war will wear the same uniform as you and believe in the same Will of Fire".

"So that's what's going to happen?" Sakura spoke in a low tone from her stance by Kakashi's side as the two rejoined the discussion and Shizune opened a window to ease the staleness of the air in the flat. "If we stay by our comrades we become terrorists and insurgents, then? Rebels?"

"Terrorists have been known to bring down governments, and insurgents, if triumphant, become leaders of revolutions" Kakashi's utterance brought a different feeling over the room. "If it comes to that, we have a duty to fight for the side that is in the right, and that's all there is to it. But for now… we're deep in the shite".

"I'll give myself up, then" Naruto said from his chair, eyes still locked on his hands, still seeing the blood frozen all over his fingers before his mind's eye. "It's my-"

"Naruto, I like you a lot better when you're being yourself and not a second rate Sasuke" Kakashi gave his dearest student a long look. "And this isn't the time to bend over, pull your trousers down and let the coppers fist you to their hearts' content. You can act all noble some other time. Don't you realise that, as your sensei, I'm legally responsible for your actions, and that both Kiba and" he looked to the young woman sitting next to Hinata, wondering what the hell her name was again "Hyūga-chan acted violently alongside you?"

"They were crooked, weren't they?" Sakura asked as she went to sit by Ten-Ten. "I mean, Kiba told us of what they were saying before. Who knows-".

"A bad policeman is still a policeman" Shizune said then "and crooked as they might be constables are a tightly knit lot. Violence towards one of them will make all of them vindictive, and you'll all no doubt be prosecuted alongside Naruto in accessory. But" she looked to Kakashi "that's not the worst part".

"Aye" he nodded in return. "The Shimura clan runs the military police, and Danzō might have little official authority over them but he's still the father of the police commissioner. He's also chancellor of the Judiciary, meaning that if Naruto gets thrown in jail he falls into the hands of that prick… and as bad as things might otherwise get, giving that kind of power to Danzō will be infinitely worse".

"You should've killed them" Shizune said again to Shikamaru.

"Aye" he pulled a hand across his tired face in return as his teammates each laid a hand on his shoulders in support. "Maybe I should've".

"That's neither here nor there" Kakashi dismissed it all. "We've got three options as is: either give ourselves up and get myself, Hyūga-chan, Kiba-kun and Naruto thrown in the locker, or fight. We can fight here and no doubt die in some terribly noble and profound manner, or we can fight our way out of the village and run to live a life on the lam".

"That's just two options is it, really?" Ten-Ten looked up at them. As a member of the Chūgoku community, a group of immigrants west that had settled in Konoha a long time ago among which Rock Lee, Maito Guy and his family, Taiga Chen and his granddaughter Azami along with a couple of hundred other people were all counted as members of, Ten-Ten was more familiar with police brutality than anyone else in the room. After all; the Shimura weren't known for being overly kind towards people they considered "foreigners". "Give ourselves up or run away?"

"Aye" Kakashi replied and looked to Naruto "and it's not my choice to make".

"Why do I have to decide bloody everything?" the blonde hero of Konoha complained half-heartedly, looking with accusing eyes at his sensei. "I choose fighting. I'd rather go down swinging-attebayo".

"Wrong choice, Uzumaki-san" spoke a new voice in the room, and in a sudden panic everyone reached for their weapons and took fighting stances as they identified the origin of the voice. Said voice, low and dull and dark in pitch, came from the short but stocky man who was perched on the windowsill of the window Shizune had opened, his body dressed in the uniform of Konoha with the sash of the military police around his waist along with a pair of double-edged daggers and a black sash over both his upper arm marked with four-courned stars in gold. His shaggy black hair was held back by his hitai-ite as he surveyed the room with dark, almost colourless eyes. "Relax" he stepped off the windowsill and held up his hands. "I come in peace".

"He's a _bunshin_ " Ino spoke as she sensed onto his chakra "and a weak one at that. He doesn't have much chakra to begin with".

"You here to bring us in, copper?" Kiba growled, his father's switchblade unfolded in his hand as he made ready to pounce on the intruder along with everyone else in the chamber.

"Oddly enough, no" there wasn't even a trace of humour in the policeman's voice as he pointedly put his hands on his thighs. "Shimura Entei" the man said shortly with the slightest of courtesy nods "captain of the military police, at your service".

"What'cha here for, Shimura piss-ant?" Kiba growled and made to stand before Naruto shot him a look, making him sit back down again. "If you're here to make arrests-"

"Let's cut right to the chase" the severe man spoke shortly, his dark eyes flashing quickly around the room, his hand never far from the hilt of the knifes at his hip. "Within twenty minutes my father, commissioner of the military police Shimura Kaien, will storm in here with a fifteen man riot control squad demanding the arrest of all of you – Uzumaki-san for assaulting an officer with the intent to kill, the rest of you as accomplices in the act. You will be tried, everyone but Ten-Ten-san, Haruno-san and Uzumaki-san will go free, and you remaining three will be thrown into jail".

"Why're you warning us of this?" Chouji wondered. "You're a captain of the military police – don't you want us to get caught?"

"This is very suspicious, especially coming from you" Shikamaru added from aside his comrade, elleicting many looks from around the room. "You troublesome louts, don't you use your eyes? The cut of his chin, the way his eyes slope, the tilt and curvature of his ears – he's related to that snake Danzō".

"I'm his grandson" Entei confirmed with a nod, and Kakashi narrowed his good eye at the man. "And I'm here because you people don't understand that there are more sides to this than black and white or good and evil. Let's just say that I have an interest in keeping you out of my father's hands, Uzumaki-san".

"Why?" Naruto wondered as he approached the man, staring him right in the eye. "What's in this for you?"

"The military police is here to protect the citizens of the Leaf" Entei replied raptly "and to keep the Will of Fire. But in the hands of my grandfather we're little more than goons in service to the Shimura agenda. Not all of us would be glad to see Danzō become Hokage. Now" his face twisted into a harsh scowl as he stared around the room "are you lot going to listen to me?"

"Do we have a choice?" Sakura wondered dourly, and the Shimura insurgent shrugged.

"No. You will need to get out of here, Uzumaki-san, and seek asylum. If you flee the village you will be hunted down and dragged back in chains. You" he looked to the rest of the room "will any of your clans consider harbouring a fugitive?"

"You think to play on the fact that clan leaders have absolute authority within their own compounds?" Kakashi asked, to which Entei nodded. "Clever. The Hatake would never agree to it. They're firmly in Danzō's phalanx, as is my uncle. And the Yamanaka aren't even worth considering".

"We would have to vote" Ino agreed reluctantly "and that would take ages to get through".

"My father won't adventure his seat at the head of the council" Shikamaru spoke up from beside the blonde. "He's worked hard to get our clan to such a position as it is in now. He wouldn't agree to this" he shot a look sideways at Chouji "and _Kyojin no_ Chouza won't agree to anything that Shikaku won't. The Ino-Shika-Chou alliance won't keep him".

"My mother is undecided" Kiba spoke in a hesitant growl, reluctantly admitting to what he was already thinking. "She won't move unless she sees a clear advantage. I wouldn't count on hiding you away in the Warrens, mate" he looked to Naruto with his brow furrowed hard.

"Hyūga!" Hiroko exclaimed next to her mistress, to which she drew the attention of all the room. "We would take him. Isn't that right, Hinata-sama?"

"We would" she agreed readily, and Kakashi nodded in turn, as did Shizune.

" _Byakume_ _no_ Hiashi is no friend to Danzō" Kakashi mused. "He's always resented the ascension of power experienced by the Shimura. He's entitled, he's powerful, he's rich-"

"And he commands the single most prestigious clan in the village next to the Sarutobi now that the Uchiha are no more" Shizune added from aside. "He would take Naruto under his legal protection readily – if only to spite my uncle".

"And I'm supposed to do what?" Naruto interrupted their planning with the snarl of a fox that had been backed into a corner by a hunter's hounds. "Run and hide like a wimp? They can throw whatever they want at me! Come hell or high water I'll fight them and win-!"

"Don't be an idiot!" Kakashi barked and slapped his student over the back of the head to shut him up. "These are Konoha shinobi, you git! You want to kill your own comrades as readily as Sasuke?! And look beyond yourself!" he pointed to the group of youngsters on one side of the room. "It's not just your future at stake here!"

"Fine!" he snapped back and looked to Entei where he was standing by the open window. "We'll do this your way, then! What's the next step?"

"Well then, listen up" the young captain cleared his throat and spoke "because this is where it gets complicated".

Thirty minutes later the apartment complex and Naruto's flat in particular were swarming with constables from the military police, all of them moving about very seriously as the commissioner of the police, the ninth and highest rank attainable in the force, debriefed the captain in charge of the scene. The riot squad had been dismissed once it was found that the flat was empty and the suspect known as Uzumaki Naruto had fled to parts unknown, the investigation handed over to the Battery squad.

"We've scoured the scene and the immediate vicinity within a two click radius" Entai, captain of the Assault and Battery department within the military police, reported shortly, all of his thirteen sergeants going about their work in the apartment. "No sign of the suspect or his accomplices. I've requisitioned an operative from the sensor squad to track them further, but by what my own sensor can tell me they're out of range".

"Is the fuckhead outside the village?" asked Shimura Hante, one of commanders of the eight rank and the one who was in charge of the active and 'beat' portion of the military police force, a stocky man with massive Manchurian moustaches who was almost as protective of his men as he was corrupt and morally bankrupt. Next to him stood Shimura Katoe, the man who was Sarutobi Kazama's superior officer, an ineffectual man who had been in command of a street-keeper squad ever since the Uchiha had been eradicated, one of those men who would never be promoted due to their ineptitude but would never lose their position due to their friends.

"Nothing from the sentries by the walls indicate that, commander" Entai replied smoothly, lying as easily to his superiors as he always did. This was not the first time he had smuggled someone out from underneath their grasp, and it certainly would not be the last – though this time he did it out of more altruistic reasons than usual coupled with his fear of what would happen if Uzumaki-san was placed in the KSCF. Danzō, as first speaker of the council, patriarch of the clan that ran the military police and chancellor of the judiciary had virtually limitless authority within the walls of that prison, and even though Entai didn't know what his intentions with Uzumaki were he would struggle to the very end just to see Danzō not get what he wanted.

In fact, Entai hated his grandfather with a passion to rival madness – tough not as much as he hated his father.

"Keep the channels open with the sentries, and double the night shift staff" military police commissioner Kaien was a hard man who rarely smiled, just like his own father, spoke with an authority of the ages that comes with years of experience as a leader of men. "I am not letting someone who's crippled one of my men go unpunished. The honour of our institution is at stake!" He snapped his unnaturally grey eyes to his fifth son. "Captain Entai – what have we gained from inspecting this place? Any suspicions of terrorism?"

"Terrorism, general?" Entai wondered with a frown, addressing his father as he always did. Kaien was a man with many children; eight of them alive, in fact, and of those two had joined the ANBU and one become a scientist, the rest electing to follow their father's path into the military police. Or rather, none of them had chosen it for themselves – they had all been pushed towards that path in life, and were all in one state or another of acceptance or defiance. "Sir, with all due respect: why would you suspect something like that from a person guilty of assault with malicious intent?"

"Attempt at murder" Kaien corrected "and you are obviously not aware of just who this person is: Not only is a Shinobi with a known association to a traitor who possesses a Kekkei Genkai of Ninjutsu type, but also one prone to recklessness, insubordination, and a constant espousing of his desire to attain the Hokage's hat. A man such as him, young as he might be, is dangerous to the order of things. It is very likely that the events of this night has spurred him to action if action was intended. Search this place!" he raised his voice and barked, his black commissioner's haori whipping about his feet as he stormed deeper into the small studio flat. "Bring out all his damn secrets! I want to know everything there is to know about Uzumaki Naruto!"

Inwardly Entai railed against the world, but outwardly he remained stoic and expressionless. Since the night before, after a long meeting with Danzō himself, Kaien had ordered the patrols to go nightly and increase, a "preventive measure" to "deter unrest". And as luck would have it, three of his most inept men had given in to their baser natures, stuck their hands where they did not belong, and gotten their arses handed to them for their efforts. It was all an act of idiot happenstance.

But it was always the little things that set the ball rolling, wasn't it?

"Captain! Commissioner general!" called one of the officers, Shimura Kaidake, from where she was crouching in front of a dresser of some kinds, in the process of pulling up a wad of papers from a bottom drawer full of socks and underwear. "I've found something!"

"Give it to me" Kaien ordered, and the woman's top-knot bobbed as she rose on slender legs and handed it to her ultimate overseer with a bow and salute, who took the bundle of papers from her with a dismissive gesture. He gave the file the once over, eyeing through it, coming to the realisation that it was the very same folder of classified papers that he had been shown earlier that day during the meeting with his father and the clan and allies higher-ups. But it was thicker somehow… could it be? He flipped to the very back and discovered an appendix section that hadn't been included with the version he had seen, and by the words written therein…

Shimura Kaien smiled, and as he rarely did so it was a horrid thing to see.

"Jackpot" he narrowed his eyes at the text upon the pages before he looked up. "Entai-taicho, see to it that this place is scrubbed and put under observation. I will need to bring this" he held up the papers as he moved towards the exit "to Danzō-sama right away".

* * *

"So" Hyūga Hiashi spoke up and broke the tense silence that had settled between him and Naruto after he had sent everyone else from the audience chamber in the forecastle of the Hyūga compound, making sure that what he had to say to the young man would stay between them and not be overheard by either his nosy daughter, her attendant – who was in for a long chastising talk about the responsibilities of her station – and the boy's eager but slightly overprotective sensei.

"So?" Naruto wondered back with a sour look on his face, trying not to think of the cold within his hand or the screams of the man he had crippled. The rest of their little group had scattered to the four winds to seek shelter from the coming legal storm by their families' sides, and so only Kakashi and the two Hyūga girls had followed him back to their compound after he had made about a hundred clones of each of them which he had then sent off in all directions to confuse any pursuer while the Shimura captain stalled his own men.

"So" Hiashi began anew "I finally get to talk to you after all these years". The audience chamber was, like much of the rest of the compound, traditional in the extreme like it had been taken straight out of a period piece drama with all its tatami-covered floors, paper and wood walls and oaken floored hallways and ceilings. It even had black slate roofs and gardens in the multitude, a little haven of tranquillity, tradition and reactionary values that lay on the edge of the swiftly modernising Konoha. "The hero of Konoha, the defeater of Gaara and slayer of Akatsuki, Jiraiya-sama's last disciple… jinchūriki to Kyūbi no Kitsune".

"You know about that?" Naruto felt an icy shiver going through him. He knew. Bloody hell, he knew. Now the last hope of safety was-

"I've always known about it, Uzumaki-kun" the patriarch of the Hyūga replied in the same calm and dignified manner as he put his hands inside the voluminous sleeves of his black and white kimono. "I was there the night when this village burned before the rage of the Demon. I saw its chakra then, just as I see it now" his eyes bulged up and shone with the power of his chakra as he looked to Naruto's midriff. "It lays within you, clawing to make its way out".

"How?" Naruto asked and laid his hands over his stomach in a futile attempt to restore his dignity before the all-seeing white eyes. "How can you-?"

"Our eyes see so many things that the sensory overload can be… overwhelming" Hiashi informed shortly. "We always see the same things, even at birth, but we must learn to discern one thing from another. I have seen and learnt many things, Uzumaki-kun. I can also see that it is the Beast and its prison that is keeping the Ice within locked away".

"I used it tonight" Naruto heard that heart-tearing screaming echo in his ears once again. "I… I got angry, and then it just… came surging forth-attebayo".

"The Beast is a thing of destruction, of rage, and it will respond to you if your urges become destructive, bringing the Ice with it. But" Hiashi paused and blinked twice as his eyes returned to their normal state "you know this. I know this. Your sensei knows this. My daughter… she doesn't know this".

"Aye" Naruto nodded slowly, a fear bubbling up in his gut. "I… I asked her to become my girlfriend earlier tonight – before everything went to shite – and she said yes. I don't mean to harm her or-"

"Hinata is strong" Hiashi spoke in turn. "Gentle, but strong – because of, or maybe in spite of, my absent form of rearing her – and she can look after herself. I would not have pushed to make her my heir again otherwise. She can drive your relationship on her own without me worrying about your intentions. But" he held up a hand as his look at Naruto turned steely "you will have to tell her the truth. That is the one condition I place on your amnesty in exchange for the legal protection I offer you: be honest with my daughter. The rest will follow".

"That's it?" Naruto wondered slowly at his speech, a little apprehensive. "I… that's a little unlikely-attebayo. Everyone keeps asking me to do something or be something or if they can use me as a lab-rat. And you're just doing this out of the goodness of your heart?"

"Tell me, Naruto-kun" Hiashi replied after a long period of silence "what do you know about the Shimura clan?"

"Not much" he shrugged. "I didn't pay much attention in class when they talked about the clans and history and stuff. I do know they're in charge of the military police, but not much more than that-attebayo".

"The Sarutobi were blacksmiths before they became Shinobi, the Senju have been warriors for as long as our history recalls" came the lofty explanation. "The Namikaze were criminals of the yakuza, but even in that there is a kind of honour. The Hatake were farmers, the Nara were hunters, the Yamanaka fortune tellers, the Inuzuka mercenaries – my own ancestors were spies as far as I can tell from the histories. But the Shimura were thieves and murderers, _eta_ , butchers who handled unclean things. And that the spawn of such vile scum now all but rule this village is something that sickens me to the soul, Uzumaki-kun".

"You're a bit of a classist, aren't ya?" Naruto frowned at the head of the clan, and Hiashi's severity faded into an amused chuckle.

"I suppose I am, but if so I am in the right. Our clan is one of the oldest in the village, and the Hyūga name carries weight throughout the world. Nothing is beyond our ken. Nothing is beyond our sight. And that I have to wrestle every inch of power I have out of the hands of a greedy megalomaniac scion of whores and murderers is something I find a fault to nature".

"So" Naruto went, understanding that, while bit of a dick, Hiashi was a moral man who saw himself justified in what he did. "All I have to do is be open and honest to Hinata-chan and the military police won't drag me away to get dissected… again?"

"You are quite correct, Uzumaki-kun" came the nod in return. "As long as you have fidelity towards my daughter I will do everything in my power to keep you out of Danzō's clammy hand. Even as we speak a room in the guest wing is being prepared for you. I hope that you find the lodgements to your satisfaction – my daughter would doubtlessly show you the way there. Your sensei, legally responsible for you as he is, can stay here too. Now, if there was anything else…?"

"You said that you can see the Hyōton inside of me" Naruto slowly spoke with some hesitation. "Do you have… do you know how to make me able to control it?"

"It seems to me that with your seal constructed the way it is now" Hiashi pondered with a finger tapping against his chin "that the Kyūbi is in control of your Kekkei Genkai. It's a little more complicated than that – try to imagine the Beast and the Ice being locked away right next to each other and you have a good idea – but that is the gist of it. Without undoing the seal completely and replacing it with something else that is more attuned to your own chakra I cannot help you… and I am not about to undo the chains restraining the most powerful demon in existence".

"Oh" the blonde young man spoke back simply, downcast but more than that tired and bone weary and eager for sleep despite the strange location. "Well, I should probably go hit the hay. See you around, Hyūga-jisan" he rose and headed for the door, but was stopped by a pointed clearing of a throat.

"As I father, I feel it is my duty to say this" Hiashi spoke jovially with a smile. "Break my daughter's heart, and I break you. Understood?"

"Dead on" Naruto nodded shortly and slid open the door to the audience chamber, now a little more at ease. After all, it would have been strange if a man like Hiashi was completely fine with a clanless orphan like Naruto eventually making the beast with two backs with his daughter. All this politicking and civil strife and dangerous discourse was alien to Naruto but threats of violence he understood.

And wasn't that a depressing thought?

As he entered the antechamber beyond Kakashi and Hinata rose from where they had been sitting by the side of a low table of lacquered black wood slowly talking about the few pieces of art and calligraphy that lined the walls, the heiress having, to Naruto's shameful sadness, changed her festive yukata for a much more severe and traditional kimono patterned with floral vines at some time during the night. "Are we in the clear?" Kakashi wondered shortly, as he otherwise most likely would have to find someone to measure a noose for him.

"We are. Both of us" Naruto replied to his teacher before he turned to his girlfriend. "Your da's kind of a dick-attebayo".

"He is" she smiled back timidly "Naruto-kun, but he is resolute, and he hates the Shimura".

"No shite?" he wondered sarcastically. "I didn't get that from the million classist slurs he dropped about them".

"He's sort of… traditional" Hinata excused her father slowly and then looked to the pale faces and the pitted eyes of the two men before her. "Oh, I'll show you to your quarters. Hiroko has already carried what little you brought with you over there".

"Good" Kakashi nodded and followed Hinata and Naruto as the two turned to walk side by side down the corridors towards the south-eastern part of the massive compound. "I only packed a few changes of clothes, and with the asylum conditions being what they are we'll have to stay cooped up in here until this constable-business gets sorted out".

"I just had time to bring gama-chan and my nightcap" Naruto grumbled before Hinata reached out to take his hand. "Huh?"

"No one's as broad shouldered as you around here" she said as she intertwined her fingers with his in a tender gesture as they walked, passing very few people given the hour of the night. "But I'm sure we'll find something for you to wear after you've returned the blazer and suit to Chouji".

"It's all his and Kiba's fault" he grumbled a little sourly "so I'll just keep it, yeah?"

"I think it looks good on you" she supplied and then leant over as they walked, kissing him upon the cheek. Behind them Kakashi made an exaggerated vomiting noise.

"Ugh, you two are cute but you're taking it so far that it's now saccharine" he complained behind them as the two blushed while they came upon the walkway that crossed a vast courtyard made for group exercises and large sparring matches to a low building with elegant double doors and a long hallway beyond. "Nice digs".

"We rarely have guests except for when our vassals come to pay tribute" Hinata informed as she showed them to two rooms at the end of that slightly gloomy building, simple chambers with only the most basic of electrical utility and the most simple of furnishings and decorations upon the paper and pastel-green wooden walls. "You should remain undisturbed except for the occasional Senmin who's sent to fetch you or do your laundry. You will be woken at… nine-ish? Or ten, I think. We'll send for you when the Sōke eat breakfast. Your futons are rolled up in your closets. Anything else I can help you with?"

"Uhm, Hinata-san" Kakashi prodded as he looked around "is there a bathroom around here?"

"There are two in this building, one at each end at the first and last doors from the left facing the entrance".

"Cheers – you're great help to have around, you and your clan both, Hinata-san" Kakashi made to move into the room dedicated to him, leaving the two young lovers to converse on their own. "Ja ne".

"This night didn't turn out as I hoped it would-attebayo" Naruto acknowledged hesitantly, scratching the back of his head with his free hand.

"Yes" she answered shyly and looked up at him with rosy cheeks. "Do you… do you think it was just a bad night?" Was he regretting-?

"There's good and bad both" he shrugged after he had considered the question for a second. "And I don't think you'll ever be bad for me, Hinata-chan".

That she ever doubted his ability for romance was something she considered her greatest fault right then as she blushed beet red and went up on the tips of her toes to kiss him shortly. "I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto-kun" she whispered to his ear before she separated from him and let go of his hand reluctantly.

"Sweet dreams, Hinata-chan" he replied and stared forlornly after her as she went, closing the door at the end of the building behind her with a last timid smile at him. Only then, when she was out of sight, did he feel his strange melancholic mirth fade. "So I got locked in prison anyway" he wondered aloud and looked around.

"Well, this is a lot better than the KSCF" Kakashi supplied through the thin walls, and as Naruto went to bed with a sigh he wondered if this was all going to work out in the end.

* * *

 _Intermission_

 **PLUGGO PLUGGO PLUGGO**

Are you tired of this "Arctic Fox" business? Do you wish that this story was more comedic? Do you think you would enjoy this work of FanFiction more if it was easier on the angst?

Then you are in luck, my friend!

 **Naruko: Explosion Chronicles!** Is a thing that exists now on this very site, and that thing is:

A story written by the author of N: tWF – ergo me!

A tale about the flirtatious Bakuton user Uzumaki Naruko and her would-be lover and sidekick Hinata (who's a guy now!) as they battle to stop the machinations of Captain Killjoy, Uchiha Sasuke!

A story written in the same style as N: tWF but with a more comedic focus. Less angst, more fun, less of those serious frowny faces and more charm!

Why don't give it a read? The first chapter is already up!

Just because Naruto's genderswapped in it doesn't mean it's automatically shit, you know….

* * *

And now we return to our regularly scheduled broadcast; staring Yuki Haku as _Uzumaki Naruto_!

Not really… though that would be _awesome_!

* * *

The following days were in a way the most strained Naruto had lived through.

While Hiashi pulled some very intricate legal shenanigans in the council and used all of his considerable influence to keep Naruto out of the hands of the military police, claiming that he had acted in self-defence and that as only other clan in the village with a Kekkei Genkai the Hyūga were the only ones who could keep the Uzumaki as equals, the only ones who could truly hold him accountable for justice.

Danzō railed at that, tried to push the situation to his advantage, having at once been handed an opportunity as well as having it ripped from his hands, but his commands of extradition went unheard by Hiashi. In his short-sighted rage, an uncharacteristic loss of control by the Shimura head, Danzō demanded that the military police should be given authority over clan justice – an act that only served to turn the Ino-Shika-Chou phalanx firmly against him. But, as much as he hated having an asset as powerful as Uzumaki in the hands of his enemy another boon had been granted him in the form of a bundle of papers written by the Hokage's scribes containing quite the sordid addenda; incriminating papers what, if used correctly, undermine the already precarious powerbase of the Hokage and bring the whole village over onto his side of things. He simply bided his time, looking for the opportune moment to reveal this information. His moment would come, soon. And he would ensure that the Leaf bloomed ever stronger under a Shimura Hokage.

Kakashi too was ill at ease given the fact that members of the military police were seemingly permanently camped outside the Hyūga compound, demanding both his and Naruto's immediate transfer into their custody and no doubt oh so tender mercies. During the third day he spent locked up in the compound Anko did come around and decided to give the constables what for in a thoroughly emasculating chastation that let many ears ringing around town, but when she was let inside she didn't spend as much time in private with him as he would've liked, instead urging him to sit and drink with her and a Hyūga man named Haishe, a quiet fellow that Anko seemed to know very well. He internally debated bringing Anko into the fold of their cause, but decided against it. She had too little impulse control, was too passionate and prone to violence and bloodshed. Not yet, perhaps. Not yet.

Instead he managed to sneak out messages to the four people he trusted the most: Uzuki Yūgao, Namiashi Raidō, Shiranui Genma and Tenzō, the soldiers over whom which he had once been a captain in the ANBU. Raidō and Genma were not so easily convinced, as they were bodyguards of the Hokage and both very firm and loyal men, but once he got Tenzō, who eagerly agreed, and Yūgao on his side they were slowly swayed. He convinced them of seeing things his way, of the fact that the removal of Tsunade as Hokage was not simply an eventuality but a necessity, and when they did leave the Hyūga compound under the cover of darkness he implored them to seek out Shizune for more information and direction. The situation was, in effect, deadlocked as far as he could see it, with both Danzō and Kakashi unable to make any effective moves, but if Hiashi failed in his endevours and they were taken into Shimura custody then it did not hurt to have friends on the outside that could set them free and spring them out of jail should worst come to worst.

It was a game, he began to realise. A game of shōgi with the lives of thousands on the line, and every move of a piece could result in death for both him and his prize student. He hated the game, the sneaking and the backstabbing and the lying, but he had no choice. He had to play it regardless –

Or all his sensei had ever strived towards would be for naught.

He didn't trust Hiashi, but he had the rely on him out of necessity, and so he began to reach out to his contacts outside of Konoha – old comrades and allies who owed him favours of some kind or another – in order to make contingency plans should their protection fail. Shizune's name was useful in the extreme, as she had become quite reknowned as a healer throughout the world during her travels, and so he kept her advice close to him – even after she told him that she had lost the once piece of physical evidence that supported their insurgent agenda.

Little did he know, but Kakashi was right not to trust Hyūga Hiashi. He had a hidden agenda much like that of Nara Shikaku or Yamanaka Inoichi – to wed one of his daughters to the Uzumaki boy and bring the Hyōton into his family, thus strengthening the clan for the future. But unlike the Nara or the Yamanaka he had only to sit back and let it happen, which afforded him quite the leeway when it came to his own plans. And as Danzō lost his temper and dug himself deeper in clear opposition to the virtues and rights of the old clans of Konoha, doing most of Hiashi's work for him on the council, he was content with sitting back, lazily sipping his cup of sake as things went his way.

Truly he was blessed by Heaven and the Ancestors.

For the Konoha 11 things mostly went on as they had before the whole mess started rolling, with only a few important exceptions. Kiba was accused of assaulting an officer of the law, and after having his mother chew him out in front of the entire clan he was more or less ordered to show the military police Inuzuka justice: trial by combat, as was their way. Kiba, pitted against his accuser Katō Myira, the man who he had choked out on that fateful night, won the resulting duel handily, and the Shimura, on behalf of their vassals, had to endure paying a fine of reciprocation to the Inuzuka clan in addition to the loss of prestige they experienced. And so despite his actions Kiba became a darling of his clan, much to the ire of his fellow candidates for the chiefdom. One of said candidates, a girl named Ke, sent a message about it all to one of her relatives on the border of Tsuchi no Kuni – not knowing that said relative had just been brutally murdered and that the message about the most likely next chief on the Inuzuka fell into the hands of an ancient enemy of the clan.

As for the others things went very much the way they always had. Team Kakashi, now rechristened Team Yamato, got a new member in addition to their namesake captain – a young orphan girl name Takeda Yari who had been one of the less impactful classmates of Sakura and Naruto and a part of Team 9 before said team was disbanded due to budget cuts. She was easy going but fairly skittish, ineffectual in combat, and next to the two others in her team she was constantly overshadowed. The only other remarkable thing was that both teams Shikamaru and Kurenai got one new member to replace the ones recently lost – Asuma, being dead, was replaced with some guy named Tora who was about as well adjusted for his team as a round peg in a square hole, and Team Kurenai, who's leader went on extended maternity leave and moved back into the Yūhi mansion to be supported by her family through her pregnancy, got new leadership under Mitarashi Anko. The result was, predictably, chaotic, as said Ninjutsu expert clashed with Hinata's subservient personality and Shino's stoic lack of emotion. She did get along with Kiba, though, if she didn't bring out her snakes which always resulted in Akamaru getting his nark on.

Naruto experienced things quite differently, though. Roaming the halls of the Hyūga compound with limited space and very little to do for the eleven days following his attempted arrest the only reason he didn't go insane was Hinata. She was out on missions twice, leaving him with only the Hyūga Bunke as punching bags, but that was after she had introduced him to life in the clan.

"Are you sure about this, Hinata-chan?" he asked on the second day as she inspected how well he wore the cream white leftover kimono he had been given from out of the things of some elderly relative who had actually been of his build as opposed to the short and slender Hyūga stature. He was walking with her towards the western side of the compound the place where most of the Bunke lived and went about their daily affairs, but she had stopped him in the midst of their walk to regard him in his clothes.

"Of course, Naruto-kun" she blushed as she smiled up at him, nodding as she looked at the tie of his obi. "Y-you wear it quite well, so there is no reason to fret". After that night she hadn't kissed him even once, though they spent a great deal of time together. Oddly enough, when she saw him she always seemed to have a perpetual blush in her cheeks as if she couldn't quite believe what she had done to other night.

And so she shepherded him through the hallways of the compound, followed by both Hiroko and Honoka in silent attendance and watchful vigil, until they came onto a set of double doors marked with a lion leaping after a swallow in flight carved into the wood of their surface. Beyond was a small courtyard, square and surrounded by terraces of all sides, a small basin of open air in the middle of the building around a small square grounded with sand instead of grass or paved stones. At Hinata's entry all the people there, a considerable two dozen who had been sitting watching the two men sparring in that compound or chatting about the matters of the day, stood as one and bowed at the heiress of the clan, electing a calm smile from her and nervous fiddling from Naruto.

"Uhm, Hinata-chan" Naruto sweated and wondered what the hell to do as he stood beside his girlfriend – damn! The shivers that went down his spine at that thought, the thought of she being _his_ , were nothing short of exquisite.

"Please, don't be alarmed, Naruto-kun, and just do what I do" she smiled through a blush and returned the bow offered by her clansmen, a gesture Naruto clumsily mimicked. "Everyone, please carry on. Don't let me keep you from your enjoyments".

With a murmur of "Hinata-sama" the clan bowed deeper before they turned and resumed what they had done as if nothing had happened, leaving a slightly perplexed Naruto standing by Hinata's side before said young woman gave him an encouraging smile and showed them towards the edge of the deck, and looked to smile brightly as one Hyūga branch family member gave them a wave and called them over with the beaconing "Hina-sama!"

"Hello" Hinata greeted that waving young woman with a bow, which was interrupted by said woman rising up and giving her a long hug. She was a little older than Naruto and Hinata, on the cusp of her twenties without a doubt, and her indigo-black hair fell long all over down her waist with a couple of good inches of it resting beneath her delicately sculpted posterior, her body framed by a short deep purple yukatta that fell down from her neck to leave her shoulders and slender throat completely bare but for an ornate necklace in the shape of a silver rose, and her cheeks were painted and her lips artificially red. Naruto wondered at that: makeup, at least obviously applied makeup, seemed to be a little rare among the Hyūga, so what was special about this woman?

"Hina-sama, how good to see you!" the woman smiled as they broke the hug, Hinata a little flushed at the contact. "You've been away from us for too long! How are you?" Without getting a reply her gaze flickered to Naruto and back, a slender eyebrow cocked in silent question. "Would you sit with me, my lady?"

"Of course, Hanawa-chan" Hinata replied and sat down beside her kinswoman on the edge of the deck, gesturing for Naruto to do the same. As they settled in one of Hinata's handmaidens went to fetch them some tea while the other, the one Naruto thought was called Hiroko, leant against a wall idly picking her fingernails with a kunai.

"So" the woman gave Hinata a long look before her gaze flickered briefly to Naruto once again. "Is this...?"

"Hanawa-chan" Hinata blushed slightly "this is Uzumaki Naruto, my..." she blushed even deeper "my boyfriend". To that utterance Hanawa gave a happy giggle, like a tittering schoolgirl, causing Naruto to give her a confused frown. "Naruto-kun" Hinata looked to him "this is my kinswoman, Hyūga Hanawa, mekake to my father".

"It is a pleasure to meet you" Hanawa bowed to Naruto with a smile.

"Uhm, sure" Naruto bowed in return, still awkward with it and far from used to all the bowing and scraping done in this clan. "Uh, likewise".

"Not used to finer company, are you, Uzumaki-san?" Hanawa smiled gently at him in a way that told him not to worry. "Do not worry. We are all Bunke here" she made a little gesture to the people around the courtyard and the two men fighting there, obviously sparring. "We rarely stand on formality in the branch family".

"Okay" Naruto found himself more at ease as Honoka returned to them with a couple of cups of tea upon a tray. "That's nice to know-attebayo. I was thinking that I was making a complete arse of myself otherwise". "Don't worry, Naruto-kun" Hinata said in a most assuring way. "I'm sure they will all come to love you. I'm certain of it".

"You've got it bad, haven't you, Hina-sama?" Hanawa questioned, and Hinata suddenly looked like she wanted to sink down into the floor and away from the surface of the world. "Don't worry – I don't judge. I'm certainly in no position to". She turned her body fully, Naruto noticing that she was a great deal more slender than Hinata, to focus her attention on Naruto. "So, Uzumaki-san... you are a former classmate of my lady's?"

"Aye, so I am" he nodded. "I was dead last in the academy-attebayo... I think Hinata-chan was somewhere in the top three, ne?"

"Only in the theoretical stuff" Hinata mumbled, but Hanawa waved that particular concern away.

"But I've heard so much about you, Uzumaki-san" the woman went undeterred by Hinata's shyness and humility. "We've all heard about the saviour of the village, bester of the tenuki sand demon. I've heard you took out half of Akatsuki with only a single technique".

"Nah, nothing like that" he replied with a shaking of the head. "I've only taken out... three of them, I think. And all at separate times-attebayo".

"Still" Hanawa went with a look towards Hinata "that's quite a feat for someone as young as you. But then again, you were trained by Sharingan Kakashi and Jiraiya-sama of the Sannin, so great things expected all around, ne? What rank are you?"

"Still a gennin" he spoke a little vexed, his joy evaporating at the mention of his long overdue promotion.

"Oh!" Hanawa was taken a little aback. "I'm a chunin myself, but I can sense the skill and power coming off you. What is our Hokage thinking keeping you at such a low rank and pay?"

"Beats me" he grumbled sourly, and as Hanawa sensed it was a sensitive topic she let it go, and so they sat in silence for some time while they watched the two Hyūga soldiers fight on the courtyard, both of them young men, one little older than Naruto at the same age as Lee and Neji, the other around the same age as Hanawa. He could tell they were both skilled Taijutsu practitioners by the way they moved around each other, but also, by their lack of advanced moves and supplementary moves such as Ninjutsu, that they both lacked the chakra and the stamina for more esoteric shinobi practices. As he sat watching the two fight a thought occurred to him, and being as tactful as a brick in a dishwasher he went right out and asked. "What's a mekane?"

"Excuse me, Uzumaki-san?" Hanawa hummed as she and Hinata looked to him again.

"Hinata-chan said you were a mekana to her dad... or something" he went thoughtfully. "Is that like a third cousin once removed or something? I've always been an orphan, so I don't really know".

"Naruto-kun" Hinata mumbled something to the side. "She's mekake to my father..."

"What's a mekake?" he pressed, and an awkward cough from her handmaiden told him that he had stumbled onto a sort of a sensitive topic.

"I'm Hiashi-sama's concubine" Hanawa explained in short terms, but it seemed that the explanation wasn't such for Naruto.

"...what's a concubine? Is it something you eat?"

"Well, sometimes-" Hanawa provided with a blushing smirk before Hinata silenced her with a terrified look. "No, Uzumaki-san. A concubine is sort of like a wife, but not really. It means that I'm Hiashi-sama's lover, and that I have some protection under the law as such, but all our children will be under a state of 'partus sequitur ventrem'".

"Huh?" Naruto scratched his head.

"'That which is brought forth follows the womb'" Hinata supplied in an attempt to help. "It means that if she and father has children then their children will be of her caste-"

"Bunke, in my case" the older woman provided.

"So you're like Hinata's stepmother?" Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"Ancestors, no!" Hanawa dismissed that pronouncement a little too quickly. "Hikari-sama is still alive, so that's not possible. Think of it like this: by Hyūga law divorces are not permitted, as to ensure the propagation of the Byakugan. But if a wife becomes infertile or is otherwise unable to have children, for whatever reason, then Sokē men-"

"And branch family men too, if they have been granted the right by the elders" Hinata interjected.

"-may take mistresses to ensure that they have children with the Byakugan and preserve the Hyūga bloodline" Hanawa went on. "These children will belong to their mother's branch of the family, but are recognized as heirs to their property and are often given special status amongst their caste".

"Isn't that kind of thing illegal?" Naruto wondered as to the legality of bigamy.

"Our clan is older than Konoha, Naruto-kun" Hinata informed. "A part of our oath of fidelity to the Senju that founded this village was a promise on their part to always respect our traditions. Not all of them I approve of" she added to the side.

"Ah, bish-bosh" Hanawa waved in the air with a scoff. "I'm happy as is, you know? I could've said no, but I didn't, right? And your father is a kind man, Hina-sama. I'm happy to be your friend, yours and your sister's".

"So" Naruto surmised "you're Hinata's friend while you're shagging her da, and there's nothing her mum can say about it even though they're still married?"

"Well, if you say it like that then of course it sounds barbaric" Hanawa rolled her eyes.

"Of course it's barbaric-attebayo" Naruto replied in what he thought was an obvious manner. "You're only a little older than us. Hinata-chan" Naruto looked to the girl in question "are you a'right with your da shagging a lass only one or two years your senior?"

"You overspeak your station, Uzumaki" Hanawa warned at the insult to the clan's customs, but when Hinata's hand shot up she kept from elaborating.

"The Hyūga needs to change" Hinata said then, much more serious and stronger than she usually spoke. "The clan has many customs not suited for a modern world, and our ways have to change. That is my intention as heir to the clan" Hinata spoke with force, and many nearby eyes fell on her then... especially a couple that had newly arrived.

"My dear daughter, always the reformist" a woman's voice spoke warmly, and Naruto craned his neck around to see an older Hyūga woman standing in the entry to the courtyard, her silk kimono long, darkly blue and patterned with ume blossoms, her complexion just as pale as Hinata's and her body a less muscled and more mature carbon copy of her daughter's. Her eyes were the biggest surprise for Naruto though – unlike the ones that had met Naruto from every angle the moment he stepped into the compound, hers were brown and normal, not possessed of the Byakugan. Didn't that mean she was some sort of sub-human in the eyes of the Hyūga?

"Mother!" Hinata spoke warmly and rose to take the woman's hands while Hanawa gave her a wide but fake smile and bowed slightly, as if only offering the slightest of greetings and that reluctantly. Naruto wondered what the hell was going on with the Hyūga to make them so… strange as they were. How could anyone, anywhere, be content with playing second fiddle to another, in marriage or in combat?

Then again, he had always been reaching for the top of the world, so maybe he wasn't the one to talk.

Naruto came to learn over the coming days that Hyūga Hikari was a woman unsuited to life in a Shinobi village. After Hinata's birth, which had been a long and nightmarish one stretching out over almost two days of blood and great pain, Hikari had gained an aversion to blood, growing faint and dizzy as soon as she even caught sight of the sanguine matter flowing upon the skin, and so she too had grown reclusive and pacifistic in a clan of warriors and guardians, shunning battle and violence on an even philosophical level. But despite all this Hiashi hadn't put her aside or sent her to live with the clan's Taketori vassals in the countryside while he made plenty of children with his mistresses. Instead he had kept her close and professed nothing but love for his wife of many years, doting on both her and both of his daughters now that both of them had the approval of the elders and the inheritance of the clan was secure.

And in that complication lay the root of Naruto's unease in the clan. They were so traditional, so stuck in their ways that every inch of their consciousness was rooted in practices that went back for centuries. He would gain some familiarity with the Bunke or the Senmin of the clan only to find himself disoriented whenever they said something strange to the effect of "Perhaps I'll do it in my next life" or "such is the nature of things". No wonder Neji had almost snapped and spent his younger years resenting the Hyūga ways, for even Naruto had to admit that they were obnoxious and grating on the nerves – the endless fatalistic determinism especially. In the end he only found a few people even tolerable in the clan, chief amongst them children.

"I can tell the future, so I can" chirped Yamanaka Inosaki, one of Ino's distant relatives and a member of the Yamanaka clan who also happened to be a classmate and teammate of Hanabi's, Hinata's younger sister. It was the fifth day of his exile in the Hyūga compound and he and Hinata had been sitting in the eastern garden by the koi ponds, watching the clouds float on by in the heavens high above while they talked about nothing and everything before Hanabi and her friends showed up.

"Really?" Hinata questioned with a smile. "How would you do that?"

"My family's always been able to" the orange-haired girl professed confidently next to Hanabi and a shy boy simply introduced as Yōshi who had a turtle shell tattoo on his bare left shoulder and heavy rings around his knuckles. "We used to be fortune tellers at the imperial court before we became shinobi, you know. Everyone in the clan knows how to?"

"Even Ino-chan?" Naruto wondered, to wit the girl rolled her strange Yamanaka eyes in response.

"No… but she's obviously going to be the next First Speaker, so she doesn't have to. She's popular already as is – stupid blonde twat" she muttered in addition before an idea occurred to her. "Hey, maybe you guys want to know your future? I can give you a palm-reading, tell you about what I find!"

"Is she any good at it?" Hinata, bemused, wondered at her younger sister who was too facing the heiress and the blonde that were sitting on a stone bench side by side.

"She's alright, I guess" came the shrug in response. Hanabi had, ever since the day she was declared to no longer be the heir to the clan in favour of her sister's ascension, become slightly ineffectual and apathic, as if she didn't know anymore what to do with her life in lacking a clear goal, but it was clear to Naruto that she still loved her sister fiercely and that she didn't blame Hinata for her sudden displacement. "But it's all hokum-"

"Oi!" Inosaki exclaimed in protest.

"- so take it with a grain of salt, will you, nee-san?"

"Sure" Hinata smiled at her younger sister and reached out her hands with palms facing upwards to Inosaki, encouraging her with nary a word. "Go on right ahead, Inosaki-san".

"T-thank you, Hime-sama" the Yamanaka girl was clearly in awe as she took the hands of the Hyūga princess, examining her palms with a blush in her cheeks. "Well, your fortune is pretty strong – see this line here? – and straight as an arrow, which means you're going to be very rich in your life… though you knew that already, didn't you, Hime-sama?"

"Don't worry about that" Hinata encouraged. "Do go on".

"Your health-line is ragged, so make sure you keep yourself healthy and eat properly, yes? Otherwise you're going to be very susceptible to disease. Other than that… there's, like, a triangle here, you see? That means you're, um, most, um, likely to have lots of kids, yeah? Or at least that you're very fertile".

"Oh" Hinata blushed profusely at the last part, wondering how one could ever possibly see something like that from the creases in one's palm. "Would you – would you do Naruto-kun, too? If you want to" she looked to her boyfriend, who shrugged and went along with it all, putting his hand in Inoseki's a little reluctantly.

"Hm" was all she said at first as she stared at Naruto's palm like it was the most interesting thing in the world while their audience looked on raptly. "I see… your life-line is long and thick, but other lines intersect it and break it in places. That means you've got a strong life force, and that you might have a long life – if not for the many, many enemies you have".

"You're not wrong, Inosaki-chan" Naruto curved his eyebrow upwards "but you've gotta tell me something I don't know".

"I see" the girl went on slowly as she followed a few lines in his palm with her fingers. "This here crease? It's your fortune, and it's fairly strong too, but angled. That means you dream of starting a business or being in charge of things –"

"You've always wanted to be Hokage, haven't you, Naruto-san?" Hanabi asked.

"Don't help her. It is cheating-attebayo" he drawled at his girlfriend's younger sister while the other young girl kept staring at his hands. "See anything else?"

"Only that you're a pervert" Inosaki smirked up at him, electing an affronted protest from him and a swat which she readably dodged. "Make sure you use protection" she added in a sing-song voice as she skipped away, Hanabi and Yōshi hurrying after her in order to contain the situation while Naruto sat stunned and blushing on the stone bench.

"So" Hinata snickered shyly, her face dark red but her smile no less earnest, embarrassment and good mood warring inside of her. "That was… something else".

"No kidding" he muttered in response before he thought about what had been foretold for Hinata and he too began to blush like he was doing his best at an attempt to disguise himself as a tomato. He mumbled some excuse to go sparring with Kakashi – or something, he didn't really pay attention – and stood to leave, but was stopped by her hands taking his gently before she went up on the tips of her toes and kissed him upon the whiskered cheek.

He did walk away from that as he had planned to do – but with a stupid grin on his face and a warm blush in his cheeks.

When Hinata wasn't around he would prefer the company of the Bunke who were, generally, not as stuck up as the few Sōke Hyūga he met and at least given to be shinobi unlike the Senmin, which meant that he could spar with them at times or watch them go about their own training – like he was doing when he realised something strange upon the seventh day of his isolation in the compound.

He had been sitting by the sparring ground in the Bunke part of the compound, legs crossed under him as he watched a Hyūga one year older than him and one who was much older spar. The younger of the two was one of Lee, Neji and Ten-Ten's former classmates, a Hyūga youth who lacked almost any skill in the Jūken arts despite his Byakugan and so had been forced to rely on other methods of combat, making him something of an outsider.

Mahū, as the young man was called, was brash, impulsive, given to tempers and preferred a staff to his hands, and the man he was fighting that day, his slender body bare from the waist up in the heat of the summer sun, was a bit of a loner as far as Naruto could tell. His Jūken, too, didn't seem up to par as he fought off the blows and strikes aimed by Mahū with wide but limp swirls of his arms inside of his black gī, his grim face locked in determined concentration. And then, as his sleeves slid down a hint, Naruto saw what he was doing: making seals with his hands.

"Fūton: Kazerappa!" the other man, called Haishe, cried and put both of his hands before his mouth, ejecting a blast of air before him that sent his opponent reeling, staggering backwards before he regained his balance and charged again.

"Bōjutsu: Akahoshi!" Mahū spun his staff in a high arc as if to strike his opponent in the head, but twisted in mid-blow with his entire body behind the strike and struck Haishe in the side with a sharp crack, sending him reeling in a skid across the sand until he recovered and looked up, panting. Mahū bared his teeth and moved in for the finishing blow but before he could do little more than step forward the older man's hands flashed through a series of seals.

"Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu!" a blast of water exploded from Haishe's lips and struck the younger man in the stomach, sending him flying into the far wall past a couple of spectators. Most seemed to take this outcome as given while Naruto simply gaped, still gaping in awe at the older man as he stepped off the sand, retying his now undone gī with apt motions. "You are wondering something, Uzumaki-san?" came the question when he noticed the blonde boy's staring.

"Uhm, Hyūga-san" Naruto rubbed the back of his head, everyone else acting as if the match had been decided as per usual. "Why do you use Ninjutsu? No one else in the clan does…"

"My sensei taught me to" was all the answer he got in a most dark of voices before the Haishe turned away, and as he walked towards the doors at the end of the court yard Naruto caught sight of a dark dot on the back of his neck. No, not a dot – a triskelion pattern, three blocky hooks angled in on each other, the same kind of black ink in his skin like Tayuya of the Sound Four had before she died. A seal… just like the one Anko-chan and Sasuke had on their necks.

And it was in that moment that Naruto realised that the Hyūga were not simply one big unit of traditional values but also a family, a group of people with history and secrets, secrets they kept from each other that coloured their actions.

He lay awake that night pondering that fact. The world was such a complicated place now, and he had no idea who were the bad guys anymore.

She was the only thing that kept him happy through his ponderings. As he trained with the Hyūga Bunke she would spar with him, urging him out of his funk with gentle coaxing and subtle prodding. Late on the ninth day, when she just that morning had gotten back from a recognisance mission, she had invited him to her room to show him… something. He didn't want to assume anything, but he couldn't help but get excited as she led him to her chambers – but it seemed like all she wanted to do was play guitar for him and talk.

"How's Anko-chan for a sensei?" Naruto wondered, sitting on the plush bed beside Hinata while the girl in question sat idly tuning the guitar Asuma had bequeathed onto her. "She can't be as bad as-"

"Oh, it's her first time as a jōnin-sensei" Hinata said as she tuned the low c with a distant expression. "She's a bit… unconventional, but she seemed to get along with Kiba until she summoned a snake and Akamaru went ballistic".

"No way" Naruto snickered.

"Oh yes" she grinned back. "He chased the poor thing up a tree. Almost made Kiba choke on laughter, so he did. Anko-sensei was in a fury, howling like a banshee, until Shino managed to put Akamaru to sleep with a tranquiliser bug of some sort".

"He" Naruto chuckled "wished I could've seen it. Priceless-attebayo".

"I like that" she said all of the sudden, electing a long look from him as he cocked his head to the side and wondered what she was going on about. "I mean, you haven't been smiling as much as you usually do lately. I like it when you smile". Slowly a blush spread across her cheeks once again and she focused anew on the guitar. "Do you… don't you like it here?"

"It's not that" he rubbed the back of his head after running a hand through his hair. "It's just… I'm climbing the walls, ya know? Tearing my hair out. You're out in the field fighting Akatsuki and I'm sitting indoors like a lemon, not being able to train because I might make something shatter or explode-attebayo".

"It's just for a little while longer" she assured him. "I mean, it's just for safety's sake until the military police lets up, isn't it? And they're already losing interest-"

"I'm sorry, Hinata-chan" he interrupted "but I don't wanna to talk about it". Even trapped as he was he was happy when he was together with her, and he didn't want to obsess over dark thoughts and dark deeds when he was in his happy place.

"O-okay" she grudgingly let up and went back to tuning her guitar in silence, or relative thus, until a thought occurred to her. "Y-you want to hear a song?"

"Sure" he nodded, to which she began playing. It was a soft tune, a classic thing he had never heard before, a folksong about love lost and found and lost again, and about a tricksome fox demon that would trade a woman's heart for her fortune only to realise that he was in adoration of her all along. In the end they both said they loved each other, but too late – and the intrepid heroine died in the fox's arms, his tears falling onto her cheeks. Her voice was crystalline clear as she sang, and despite his mood Naruto sat enraptured, staring at her. Was she… had she cast some spell on his heart? The very sight of her was intoxicating, as after she had played the final notes he found himself sitting only inches away from her.

"N-Naruto-kun" she whispered as he took his hand in hers, feeling her palm like that Yamanaka girl had done the other day, tenderly stroking her fingers with his own.

"How do you make you make your skin so soft?" he wondered as he looked at her hand closer, the skin flush and warm beneath his touch, her knuckles oddly soft despite all the physical training she no doubt had gone through. "I mean, you've got to have punched through as many bricks as I during training, and with the guitar-thing…"

"Most strikes with the Jūken is made with fingertips or the flat of the palm" she supplied slowly as he pulled her hand ever closer to his face. "Uhm, Naruto-kun…?"

"Yeah?" he asked as inspected her fingerpads closely, so close now that he could even smell the string-oil on them from when she had been playing.

"Wh-what're you doing?" But as he brought her hand even closer and kissed her fingers she stopped wondering.

"I thought you were my girlfriend-attebayo" he arched an eyebrow at her even as he kissed the second knuckle of her index finger. "Even though you haven't said anything about it since the other night…"

"I-I" she began to stammer as he flipped her hand over and kissed the back of her hand. "I've just – I've never had a boyfriend before. I don't – I don't know what to do or what to say or-"

"So you still want to be with me?" he wondered, his question masking the insecurity that burrowed in his heart like maggots through a corpse. After all that had happened, maybe she-

"I-I do" she said a little weakly before she closed her eyes, swallowed her stammer, took a deep breath and put her guitar aside on the floor beside her bed. She opened her eyes again, the blush receding from her cheeks, and so she moved her hand to lay flatly in Naruto's while she herself moved forwards, so intent that the blonde, more out of instinct than anything else, himself leaned backwards so that she in part shadowed over him. "I do".

"Hinata-" he wondered at her sudden aggressiveness, which made something primal deep within him roar in response. "What're ya doing?"

"If you can be weird and frustratingly romantic at the same time then I can be so too" she replied swiftly, her cheeks reddening just a hint as she stared into his eyes. "I'm… I'm not very brave".

"Really?" he wondered as she moved ever closer to him until her could feel her breath, hot and moist, against his lips. She seemed pretty brave to him.

"Really. It took drinking last time until I could kiss you without feeling like fainting" she professed. "I've watched you for so long, looked at you, adoring you, wanting to do stuff with you-"

"What kind of stuff?" he wondered then, hoping she wasn't talking about a secret desire to peel his skin off his body, stuff him and mount him on her bedroom wall.

"Stuff like this" she leaned all the way over and kissed him softly, right on the lips, and with no alcohol addling either of their systems at that point, as opposed to the last time they had done it, the sensation was much more intense than before.

His closeness, the smell of him, made her world spin, and she spun with it, pressing herself against him as their lips met. He was tender, gentle and careful as his lips, oddly soft despite the hardness of his muscles and the firm silk of his tan skin, his hands by his sides as he arched his neck to make it easier for her. So sweet, so simple – but something bestial within her cried and her innermost wants said "To hell with gentleness! You are a warrior, a princess, a queen! You are no flower to be plucked – you are a lioness on the hunt!" And so she pressed him further, sliding on top of him as she pushed him back, her body yearning for his touch.

Suddenly she felt that tell-tale light-headedness and the sinking feeling in her stomach that always came before she fainted, but even as her head spun in not too uncomfortable way she didn't pull away, latching on to him even harder. Fighting her faintness she put both of her hands on his chest and supported all her weight on him, finding her body pushed full against him as she straddled his hips while he lay down on the bed beneath her. As his arms went around her she felt herself shiver, almost purring at the touch, and when his tongue pushed against her lips she accepted him inside without protest, their mouths locking hungrily around each other.

The taste of him – she grew drunk on it, for it made her dizzier than liquor and made her heart race faster than any deathly battle. She felt so small and yet so powerful when she was in his arms, but… why was she always the one on top? She wanted to feel all his weight press down on her from above, wrapping her in safety and warmth and his scent. All of him, pressing against her – she shivered with pleasure at the mere thought.

"Are you cold?" he broke the kiss and asked her, concern in his eyes and a frown upon his face. Yes, she wanted to answer, yes she was cold, and she needed him to crawl under the blankets with her and warm her up until she saw stars. But she wasn't that brave, especially around him, and so she shook her head and made to kiss him once again-

But then the door opened and her stupid damn cousin stuck his damn head in the door. "Hinata-sama" Neji spoke up as he slid her door open after a polite knock and poked his head inside only to find his cousin and mistress straddling the one man who had ever beaten him when the onus was on him to win. "Oh" was all he said as Hinata looked up to give him an uncharacteristically murderous glare. "It's, uhm, time for supper, Hinata-sama. I'll" he cleared his throat as Hinata narrowed her eyes further "I'll just go away, then".

And so he slid the door shut once more and left them alone, but it seemed like the mood was ruined. She kissed him again, but it just wasn't the same, as if the spell had been broken, and instead they went to supper. But as they went they walked hand in hand, and when they sat to eat they did so next to each other, speaking softly, smiling and laughing at each other's jokes and jests. Without her, Naruto thought as he went to bed that night in a sparsely furnished room that seemed much emptier than it usually did, this captivity would have driven him insane.

But, as it always does, things changed.

It was on the eleventh day since the accident after the night at the karaoke bar that things changed once again. That day, shortly after midday, an ANBU agent came onto the doorstep of the Hyūga compound with a scroll in hand – a pardon, signed by the Hokage, ridding Naruto of all blame and essentially rendering him immune to any legal actions for anything he had ever done up and onto that day, issued by Tsunade along with an express order for both him and Kakashi to come to the Hokage tower post-haste.

"Is it a trap, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto wondered as they pushed their way out of the Hyūga compound in what felt like the first time in forever while ANBU operatives held raging policemen back with threats of violence and bared blades. Somehow they were making their way to the Hokage tower, and they were doing it unmolested.

"Perhaps" Kakashi noted "but traps, once set, work both ways. I say we walk into it, see what she wants, and trust in the Buddha Amida to see us through".

"I'm not of the Pure Land sect, sensei" Naruto protested as they stood before the doors of the tower later, his brow furrowed deep. "I don't believe in the teachings of Buddha Amida, or anything else. The Will of Fire – that's all there is-attebayo".

"Well, for some that's enough" his sensei admitted "but for others… most people believe that a whole-hearted belief in anything is due to lack of smarts, ya know? But I think if a person is clever or open of mind, like you, then that strength of belief is just that: strength. In that position I think that a splintered view of the world is a sign of doubt".

"What brought that on, sensei?" Naruto wondered as they climbed the stairs of that tower, guards following them to make sure that they remained unbothered by the now very hostile military police who, thankfully, were mercifully absent.

"Just one of the reasons why I think you deserve the hat instead of the one that wears it now, kid" was all the response the blonde boy wonder got in return. Minutes later they, together with a Shizune who had been summoned too but kept waiting, were solemnly herded into the Hokage's office, Naruto and Kakashi both expecting to fight their way out of there. But what they saw was not strength or force but…

Tsunade had been crying. Her office was empty but for three large frogs, each of which Naruto was vaguely familiar with, the most recognizable of which was Fukasaku the sage, a short and warty elder toad with white hair and a robe about his gnarled body, all of them sitting in a group to the side of Tsunade's desk. The office seemed desolate, empty but for that, and the Hokage herself, holding a crumpled up piece of parchment in her hand, looked up at the new arrivals with eyes bloodshot and harrowed, her face pale and her robes wrinkled.

All three of them stopped dead in their tracks upon seeing her. They had expected things, but not this, not seeing her so… broken.

"I'm so sorry" her shoulders shook as she looked to Shizune first, not a single bottle of sake littering her desk. "I- I never wanted this, any of it. I was just trying to do my – to keep this place safe, and it all went to shit. I- I" she looked onto Naruto as they stepped further into the office, rising from her chair and walking towards them with trembling steps.

"Don't-" Kakashi warned Naruto as he was heading for her. Kakashi didn't trust this, any of it, but Naruto was more observant than even his teacher and could tell something was amiss. He hated her for what she had done, for what she had planned to do – but he hated hate more, and so he was given to forgive her for what she had done to him. Not for what she had intended for his friends, but against himself he could forgive almost any sin if it was one of his precious people who had committed it.

"I" she began "I thought I was doing right, but now… This village is tearing itself apart, and it's all my fault. I should have been the one to lead it, but… I'm not strong enough. Damn it, I'm not right for this. I don't know if you can ever can forgive me, but… I've made you my heir and successor. If I step down – which I've decided to do soon, you'll take the seat after me. I… I didn't mean for things to get as out of hand as they did. I was frightened".

"I was so frightened" she said as Naruto drew nearer. "I'm… what if I lost it? What if I let someone take your power and destroy this village? All my grandfather's legacy, my sensei's heritage, obliterated, their wills guttered, gutted and stomped out. I just… I wanted to keep it safe. And in my madness I pushed too far. I looked into the darkness which I thought was to come, Naruto – and it looked back into me. I don't know if you'll ever forgive me-"

"Damn it, obaachan" Naruto said all of the sudden, breaking her flow of words and making her fall into a frozen silence. "I know you were scared, but so's everyone else. I maimed a guy with the damn power, a'right? And… if you give up on the Will of Fire to save it, you've been the one to doom it. Just… just don't bring my friends into this ever again, okay? And no more cutting me up! My innards look fucken' disgusting-attebayo". And then, as he looked upon the teary eyes of the woman that he himself had gotten to become Hokage, he did something he had never expected to do – he raised his arms and stepped forwards to hug her.

Her breath catching in her throat she at first could not believe it, would not believe it. For all her sins, for all she had done, for all she had planned to do when her mind had seen nothing but shadows and serpentine eyes, and he just forgave her like that? No… she could sense it as she laid one hand in his hair and the other one around his shoulders. He hadn't forgiven her, but he understood, and he accepted her and that she regretted what she had done, utterly and truly. Perhaps he would one day grow to trust her again, but right now he needed to hold her close, to feel safe as his world was uprooted around him. And Naruto pushed his face into her shoulder, holding her quietly in a simple gesture of family and almost filial fidelity.

This was how it was supposed to be. No politicking, no legal drama, no demands of him making use of a power he didn't want to possess. In her arms he thought he felt how it was like to have a mother, and so he slowly began to ease the tension in his back and let himself rest from his fighting awareness. This was how it was supposed to be.

That feeling was why the next words she said crushed him.

* * *

Hours later Hinata found Naruto in the midst of a rampage, deforesting a large swathe of woodland in a gorge beyond the northern walls of Konoha with nothing but Jutsu and rage and his bloody beaten fists. For the longest while she stayed back as strange chakra, poisonous and red, bubbled off him even as the ground froze with massive patterns of frost flowers beneath his feet, fury, grief and power radiating off him in sickening waves. Perhaps he would calm down if he was given leave to take care anger on his own. Surely she would only get in the way if she decided to interfere with what he was doing… but that train of thought was swiftly ended as Naruto, after panting for a little while, kept on raging with a roar, the world swiftly growing frozen around him.

He was losing control, and the gates of hell were edging further and further open within him.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata cried out from the top of the ridge, but he didn't hear her and just kept on with his one man mission to deforest the entire area, so she decided to make her way to him. "Naruto-kun!" she cried again as she climbed her way down the shear face of rocky cliffs in leaps and bounds, landing on her feet but almost slipping on an edge of frozen ground. Spots of ice and snow dotted the gorge and the cracked trunks of fallen trees as if a blizzard had hopped from place to place, but it was all centred on Naruto, the cold flowing off him in waves undeterred even by the blazing heat emitted by the summer sun. "Naruto-kun!"

"Go away, Hinata-chan" he told her over his shoulder, having stopped in the middle of his rampage to stand panting with fists at his sides as she approached him from behind. "It's not safe to be around me right now-attebayo".

"I don't believe that" she shook her head as she approached him. "You're not dangerous – not to me. I know that. I know you. You're the kindest man there is".

"Then why am I so full of hate?!" he spun on her, his cheeks stained with tears, his pupils vertical burning slits around which his blue eyes had turned crimson. "What are ya doing here, Hinata-chan?"

"Word was sent out to all of us" she explained in a calm tone as she approached him slowly, as if sneaking up upon a fox she did not want to spook. "We were supposed to go see the Hokage, but-" her first thought, as always, had been of him instead of duty. "I knew you would be upset, so I went to look for you".

"Upset?" he snarled. "Upset?! I'm more than fucking upset! She sent him in to die! It was a suicide mission, and she didn't think twice about putting him on it! And now-" his shouting stopped as Hinata reached him at last, and when she reached out to take his hand the cold stopped flooding outwards from him as the red faded from his eyes, replaced by his commonly cerulean blue. She wondered at that, but now was not the time to ask why his eyes changed colour or where that demonic chakra came from.

"It's alright to be angry" she took both of his hands in hers, speaking soothingly to him as his legs seemed to lose their strength and he sagged to the ground, she following with him. "It's alright to be sad" she whispered into his ear as she held him while they knelt on the ground, his face burrowed against her, tears now pouring from his eyes.

"He's dead" Naruto whispered against her shoulder, his voice tiny and echoing in his breast, helplessness permeating it. "Ero-sennin is dead. It's my fault, isn't it? If I had been there, if I had trained harder-"

"You've done nothing but train and fight, Naruto-kun" Hinata assured him as she stroked his hair, being there for him as he needed her. "And he would have been proud over the progress you've made. He was proud. It was his mission, and he was shinobi, just like you and I. Any mission could be our last".

"Not him, not now" Naruto begged the cruelly silent heavens and the powers that be regardless of his girlfriend's words. "I need him, Hinata-chan. I need him. What am I supposed to do? What… what happens now? Hinata-chan… tell me what I'm supposed to do".

"I think" she pulled his face away from her shoulder and bent forwards, kissing his tears off his cheeks in an almost platonic gesture of true and utter affection. "I think you follow his will. What was his will, Naruto?"

"To make peace in the world" he responded limply. "To change the world. But… it's an impossible dream, isn't it? People will always fight, people will always bicker; people will always play their fucking games and send others to their deaths. It's impossible!"

"And it's impossible to change my clan from the reactionary stew of elitism it is" she focused his eyes on hers with a little force, her hands on both sides of his face as if to frame it. "It might seem incomprehensible now, but I believe in a brighter tomorrow, in a better future. As long as we keep the Will of Fire alive and never let go of our dreams we can achieve anything. We can show them a brighter tomorrow".

"I don't know how to do that, Hinata-chan" he spoke back at her, doubt filling his entire being. "What if- what if I'm not strong enough? What if I fail, or go evil like Tsunade or Orochimaru? I… I don't know what to do".

"You're strong, Naruto-kun" she assured him softly. "You're the strongest person I've ever met. And… Shikamaru went through the same thing as you not too long ago, didn't he? He's still alive, still pursuing his goals. You're a lot stronger than Shikamaru, so you can do the same".

"Aye" Naruto nodded, and as he limply thought on that he remembered what Shikamaru had said after he had avenged Asuma-sensei: Because justice must always be pursued if the Will of Fire is to survive. Justice. Vengeance.

And at that thought his tears dried up as he regained purpose with the fire that reignited within him.

* * *

They were waiting in Tsunade's office, most of the Konoha 11 as well as Kakashi and Shizune, waiting for Hinata to bring Naruto back to his senses as the elder frog spoke and recounted the tale of the final battle of the legendary Perverted Sage. Kakashi was only listening with half an ear, even though his heart bled at the notion of that great writer, teacher and man having been stolen from the world far too soon, for he was staring at Tsunade, who was holding hands with Shizune by her chair at her mighty mahogany desk. His good eye was narrowed, and his hidden eye swirled with anger within its dark and shadowy abode.

He didn't trust her. No, never, not ever again. She had broken her hold on him thoroughly and would never regain it. Regardless of how much she professed to have changed or how Naruto at first had acted towards her, before he had roared in a mournful rage and stormed out of the room leaving frozen indentions in the crackled floor from the cold that blazed around him, Kakashi did not take her change of heart at face value. His opinions about her remained unchanged, and his agenda remained unshaken, even though Shizune had seemingly both forgotten and forgiven all that had taken place. Tsunade needed to do much more to prove herself anew in Kakashi's eye. Abdicate, for one, and perhaps give up her life for the good of the people she had almost crushed for second, and maybe then he would consider letting up with his plans of dethroning her.

But for now nothing had changed. She had professed to change, but he didn't believe that in the slightest, and he was internally debating whether or not it was the right thing to run a Chidori through her black and treacherous heart right then and there when the toad sage's account was interrupted.

"Wait, what did you just say?" Shikamaru questioned the frog all of the sudden as he had been describing the battle between Pain and Jiraiya-sama, who looked at him with narrowed toad-y eyes.

"The one that led the Paths of Pain seemed to be able to manipulate gravity with a technique called 'Shinra Tensei', young Hart" the old toad expounded in a hoarse croak. "He is not to be trifled with!"

"No shite" Shikamaru grumbled in turn, his face paling visibly as he looked around the room at the raised eyebrows of the people around him. "Manipulating gravity? One of the fundamental forces of nature? If he's doing that he's essentially bending spacetime to his whim… was I the only one who paid any attention during physics class in the Academy?"

"Explain, Nara" Tsunade asked him, Shizune letting go of her hand at her severe tone. "Not all of us-"

"I'm surrounded by idiots" Shikamaru rubbed his eyes with an exasperated sigh before he began to explain to them the facts at hand as he best could. "Gravitation, by the theory of relativity, is very much the application of weight – mass. Objects with great mass bend the fabric of space and time around them, thus ensuring such things as heliosynchronic orbit, the very flow of time itself, the conservation of energy in a universe given to entropy and, most important to us, gravity. Oh, don't look at me like that! This is basic applied relativity and black hole theory, you know? Anyway, objects with great mass exert a sort influence on space-time, bending space around them, ensuring that an object travelling on a straight path through their sphere of influence will have a curved trajectory-"

"I've no idea of what the hell you're saying, Shikamaru" Chouji clutched his head hard, an ache in his brain or something to that effect.

"Just – just let me explain, will you? Anyway, that is gravity – the influence exerted on objects with lesser mass by objects with greater mass. If what you say is true, Fukasaku-san, then Pain can manipulate this force. This means he distorts space-time itself with his technique. This means, and I can't believe I have to explain this, that he twists the very fabric of reality to his will! He could feasibly turn back time as we perceive it! Dissolve the structural integrity of celestial bodies! Turn us into fucking snowflakes by a single swing of his warty buttocks! Do you people realise how much shite we're in if he comes after us?!"

"I realise that you are concerned, but not much more than that" Kakashi noted from aside, electing a groan of frustration from the Nara Tanist.

"I don't know why I even bother with you troublesome people" he grumbled and faded back into the periphery of their perception, standing muttering to himself by the wall next to Ino and Chouji.

"Regardless of the reasons to it, Pain is no doubt very powerful-" Tsunade spoke from her seat by her desk before a voice interrupted her as it always had in the times of old.

"Doesn't matter-attebayo" spoke Naruto as he walked into the office followed by Hinata, giving rise to a slight smile upon Kakashi's lips beneath his mask. "Doesn't matter how powerful he is. I'll kick his arse even if he's god himself".

"Right on" Kiba said from aside, and Lee and Chouji gave their enthusiastic approval along with several of the others – except for Sai, of course, and the two newbies who no one really cared about. "If anyone can lay the beatdown on someone like this 'Pain' character, then it's you!"

And so came the moment when Naruto was convinced to join Fukasaku and the other frogs at Myōbokuzan, the mountains of bewilderment, for training to become a sage like his master before him. He was deaf to Tsunade's pleas but did listen to the old frog, and agreed to go after he had gotten Kakashi to promise to "Look after things while I'm gone, ya hear?" And then, with a last look and slight smile at Hinata, to which she forlornly waved him off, he was gone with the unfurling of a scroll and the recitation of a Jutsu.

After Naruto had vanished in a puff of smoke along with the elder frog and his attendants the people in the office were dismissed, sent to go about their own business. Shizune, though, chose to stay by the side of her master. She couldn't quite forgive her for what she had done, even though it might seem so to any lookers-on, but she could understand, and she did understand that her old sensei had a profound change of heart upon hearing of the death of her teammate and oldest friend.

"Is sending him away the right choice?" Shizune probed her mistress's descision once the office was empty but for the two of them and Tsunade settled back behind her desk once more.

"He'll be safe amongst the frogs, and they've a lot to teach him" Tsunade replied, the full weight of all of her years bearing down on her. "And… he'll be safe away from this village. Hopefully I can salvage the situation amongst the clans and the council – if it's not too late already".

Shizune neglected to bring up the fact that she had acted without the approval of the council when sending away an asset of the state – directly defying one of their previous decrees. This was grounds for her immediate dethronement… but they would have to take things as they came. Meanwhile she spoke with her old teacher another student and master did the same not so far away from them.

"I'm so glad all that trouble's over, Kakashi-sensei" Sakura said as they left the office of the Hokage behind, the young woman clearly now at ease for the first time in more than a week, but by a single look at what little she saw of her sensei's face her good mood faded. "Sensei?"

"It's not over" Kakashi noted grimly. "The war's still coming. Things are already set in motion, and once the cycle of violence is moving it is impossible to stop".

This wasn't the end.

Their troubles were just getting started.

* * *

 **A/N** : So… that turned out pretty normal, I guess? Well, except for the Law and Order: Konoha Edition stuff around the middle, but hey, we can't all be perfect, right?

Ugh, I shouldn't write when I'm on drugs.

Anyway, let's just get this clear: the OCs are just there to flesh out the world, not to be central to the story. If you don't like them, that's quite alright – most are going to die horribly anyway. Also, let me note that this chapter, while it depicts some police brutality, is not meant to be disrespectful of officers of the law in general. However, police violence and corruption is a significant problem the world over, leading to misery, torment, disenfranchisement and even death for many, many people. Especially in the beginning of the Meji era of Japanese cultural development, which saw the consolidation of the Bakufu (military government), such transgressions were rife and frequent.

I was debating whether or not to split this chapter up in pieces, as it sort of ran away from me when it comes to length, but I decided not to for some reason. Just tell me if this chapter got too long, yeah? I try to aim for about fourteen thousand words per chapter generally, but sometimes things just work out to make it longer than that.

As always: Read and Review, and DFTBA! Cheerio!

Wait… oh, crap, don't tell me it's another-

 **Omake:** _Dr. Seuss-style limerick about the inclusiveness of language! Written in seven minutes, starring Konohamaru and Naruto!_ Begin! :

Konohamaru thought language was hard

And so he took help from his grandfather's ward

He stood up and yelled:

"Tis' a pretty hard sell!"

Because limericks and poetry wasn't too smart

But Naruto decried: "It's easy as pie"

And made it seem oh so easy as lies

And tried deplore

His disciple forsocre'n:

"It's quite easy; give it a try!"

So Konohamru lept,

He cursed and he wept

And in the end he made limericks on the lye.

"This is quite easy" he said in after gaining

The respect of his peers with his poetry waning

"Give it a shot;

"Give it all that you've got;

"It's all just easy as skinning".

"Words are aplenty in the language of English

"Some rhyme, some dance and flow with relish

"But ne'er be a bore;

"Language is no chore;

"And slangwords are aplenty and quite delish!"

"And the words that sing all the better"

Said Naruto in the tone of a lecture

"Are Angelican

"From the isles british-an

"As their language has had a long time to get letters"

"'Cor', and 'bliemey', and 'takin' the piss'

"These are some idioms that Americans miss;

"But none of them see,

"What's apparent to me:

"That language is quite much like a kiss:

"The more is the better;

"It makes the tongue wetter;

"If love and words aplenty you 'git".

"So use all your slang and break all taboos!"

The blonde cried and leapt much like a baboon.

"So stand up and shout:

"'Let all the slang out'!"

"For FanFiction's better with personality in platoons!"

 _Ugh… I should just stay away from poetry, yeah? That wasn't very good at all._


End file.
